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7-year-old girl died Monday at Denpasar's Sanglah General Hospital after exhibiting symptoms commonly associated with the last stage of rabies viral infection.

Diah Fitriani had been admitted to the hospital at 8:30 a.m., accompanied by her mother, nurses at the hospital said.

She died an hour and a half later, despite efforts to resuscitate her.

"When she was brought here, she was already in the critical stage," said hospital spokesman Ken Wirasandhi.

"She'd entered the stage when the virus attacks the brain. The common symptoms of this stage include aversion to water and light.

"It's possible the girl was bitten by a dog last year, but I have no information on whether she'd been given rabies shots since then."

He added Diah's mother had told doctors her daughter had complained of acute numbness in her limbs several days earlier.

"Numbness is also one of the many rabies symptoms," Ken said.

Three patients are currently being treated for rabies at Sanglah, where an isolation ward for contagious diseases has been set up following the H1N1 outbreak earlier in the year.

Laboratory tests on saliva samples taken from two patients, I Ketut Belok and I Made Mudiarta, confirmed both had rabies.

Both had previously been given initial antirabies vaccines, but had not followed through on the full inoculation course, which comprises four injections at three separate occasions.

"They're both improving gradually," Ken said of Belok and Mudiarta.

Another suspected rabies patient, Ni Wayan Sukari, had also complained of numbness in her limbs a few days after being bitten by her pet monkey.

She has since been inoculated and is now making good progress, doctors say. "We're still waiting for the results of the tests on her saliva," Ken said.

Belok and Mudiarta are both from Tabanan regency, which has experienced a surge in the number of dog-bite and rabies cases. This trend and local hospitals' depleted stocks of vaccines has raised concerns.

The rabies epidemic first hit the island late last year. Parts of Badung and Denpasar were officially declared epidemic zones, with much of the containment and mitigation efforts, including culling of stray dogs, free vaccinations for pet dogs and distribution of free vaccines to community clinics, focused here.

Over the last two months, however, an increasing number of cases have been reported in Tabanan. Local health authorities are now turning their efforts to the regency.