New Delhi
The family of 14-year-old Mohd. Shahvaz finds it hard to believe that the child, whom they rushed to six different hospitals over two days, died of a disease like rabies. “How is it possible that there is no treatment for it in today’s times,” the deceased’s grandfather, Matlub Ahmad, asks.
A video of Shahvaz crying with his father in an ambulance went viral earlier this week. Four hours after the video was recorded outside a hospital in Ghaziabad on Monday, Shahvaz succumbed to the disease.
Shahvaz, a resident of Charan Singh colony in Ghaziabad, was bitten by his neighbour’s dog one and a half months ago. But the Class 8 student hid the incident from his parents out of fear, the police said. The neighbour, a woman named Sunita, and three of her family members have been booked under IPC sections 304A (causing death by negligence) and 289 (negligent conduct with respect to animals).
“Sunita has six to seven dogs, none is vaccinated. The canines have a history of attacking children in the neighbourhood. Every time we brought it up with her, she and her children would become aggressive,” Mr. Ahmad said.
Shahvaz stopped taking his meals on September 1, his grandfather said, adding that his condition worsened over the weekend. On September 3, Shavaz started drooling, became anxious, prompting his father to rush him to a hospital.
“We got afraid, I asked Shahvaz what happened. It was then that he told me about the incident. He said he did not tell his mother for fear of being scolded. His condition had deteriorated by then,” Mr. Ahmad said.
On September 3, the family took Shahvaz to a hospital in Ghaziabad, which referred him to a hospital in Delhi’s Patel Nagar. From there, he was sent to GTB Hospital in Shahdara, where doctors administered him an injection and a bottle of glucose.
A day later, as Shahvaz’s condition did not improve, the family took him to a Central government-run hospital, which referred him to Safdarjung Hospital, and then to a hospital in Mukherjee Nagar.
On whether rabies could be treated, Dr. Shuchin Bajaj, founder and director of Ujala Cygnus group of hospitals, told The Hindu, “Once a person develops rabies, there is no cure.” He said an infected person can be treated within 24 hours, during which the patient is given a dose of PEP (Post Exposure Prophylaxis) to prevent the infection from spreading.
