According to officials, a small boy who had rabies and had allegedly been bitten by a bat died in southern Mexico, and a girl who is very ill has a slim chance of surviving.
The 7-year-old kid passed away on Wednesday after being bitten by “a wild animal,” according to the health department in the southern state of Oaxaca. Although it was initially reported to be a bat, this could not be verified.
The same isolated mountain town’s 8-year-old child was sedated, on a ventilator, and in severe condition. The director of a hospital in the state’s capital, Dr. Concepción Roco Arias Cruz, told the Milenio television network that she had little chance of surviving. However, a 2-year-old daughter is doing well.
She blamed the deaths on the children’s delayed medical attention.
They were bitten on December 1 but didn’t seek treatment for 20 days, according to Arias Cruz.
The disease is almost always fatal once clinical signs of rabies appear, and treatment is typically supportive, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Less than 20 human cases of clinical rabies survival have been recorded.
According to the CDC, the length of the disease’s incubation period “may range from weeks to months,” depending on the type of rabies virus, any existing immunity, and the distance between the bite and the brain.
In order to vaccinate dogs and cats against rabies, authorities from Oaxaca traveled to the children’s isolated indigenous community of Palo de Lima.
