Another person died of suspected rabies at Sanglah Hospital in Denpasar on Friday, after having been bitten by a dog six months ago.
His death brings the number of deaths attributed to rabies to six.
Thomas Aquino, 32, a resident of Ungasan village in South Kuta, began convulsing and salivating excessively on Thursday. Family members took him to Sanglah Hospital where doctors treated him for nine hours before he died. They gave rabies as the possible cause of death.
"We've diagnosed him with rabies for now considering the clinical symptoms and his history of dog bite," said Ken Wirasandhi, a physician and director of services at Sanglah Hospital.
"We're still waiting for the results of the blood test before making a final diagnosis. What is sure is that he had acute inflammation of the brain, which may have been caused by the rabies virus."
Thomas, a taxi driver, who was bitten on the thigh by a friend's dog in July last year. At the time, nobody suspected he might have contracted rabies because the outbreak was not officially declared until late last year.
Also bitten was his friend, Freddy, who refused to be interviewed. However, Freddy was vaccinated a few weeks ago during the Badung administration's rabies vaccination campaign, according to Dr. Sastrawan, a field operative with the Badung Health Agency.
"His family said they had managed to convince Thomas to get vaccinated too, but it was too late," Sastrawan said.
He said Thomas' health deteriorated extremely quickly - within one day - from when he began showing signs of sickness.
"There was no sign of anything, and then suddenly on Dec. 14, he began complaining of muscle cramps and was foaming in the mouth," said Sastrawan, who conducted an inspection of Thomas' family residence on Saturday.
Thomas is the sixth person to die of suspected rabies, according to The Jakarta Post's observations.
The first four casualties, all of whom were bitten by dogs before they died, occurred in Ungasan a few months ago. Earlier this month, 4-year-old Ketut Tangkas Adi Wirawan was reported to have died from rabies.
Sastrawan advised those who had been bitten by dogs to immediately get a rabies vaccination at their nearest Community Health Center.
"We have more than enough vaccine," he said. "Do not delay ifbeen bitten by dogs within the past year."
Ken added that Sanglah Hospital was giving free rabies vaccinations, also urging the public to take extra care to prevent dog bites.
"All these 6-month-old cases of dog bites are making us do a lot of time-consuming background checks, to find out the type of rabies virus we're dealing with and how we can handle it," he said.
The Badung and Denpasar administrations have carried out massive vaccination drives targeting stray and pet dogs in a bid to contain the outbreak.
On Sunday, scores of high-ranking Badung officials participated in a religious ritual at the Puncak Mangu temple to seek divine intervention to stop the outbreak. They have also reportedly planned a series of purification and sacrificial rituals with a similar aim in the coming weeks.
