Death toll has reached 17 after a resident died Saturday from an alleged case of rabies in Tabanan, Bali.
Tempointeraktif.com reported that 46-year-old I Gusti Ngurah Sudiharta was buried on Sunday after he was suspected to have suffered from rabies since Thursday. He was bitten by a dog in August but did not have the anti-rabies vaccine injection afterwards because it was not available in Tabanan at that time.
He was rushed to the Tabanan Regional Public Hospital but it was too late to save his life. To confirm the cause of death, the hospital sent a saliva sample to the Udayana Laboratory.
Sumiartha, health agency chief in Tabanan, said the regency had been declared an epidemic area after Badung and Denpasar.
“We named Tabanan as the next epidemic area late August. That’s why we obtained the anti-rabies vaccine on August 25,” Sumiartha said.
The virus was first found in Jimbaran, Badung in November, last year. In this regency, the virus claimed eight lives, then spread to Denpasar, Gianyar and Karangasem.
The local health agency attempted to eliminate wild dogs on the island. (ewd)
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