A ten-year-old French boy has died from rabies after he was bitten by a stray puppy while on holiday in Sri Lanka.
The unnamed boy, from Rhone in eastern France, became infected with the virus in August after the dog bit him on a beach in Dikwella in the south of the country.
His family were not initially concerned following the incident, and the boy returned to France.
A French boy, from Rhone in eastern France, became infected with rabies in August after he was bitten by a stray puppy on a beach in Dikwella (file photo) in southern Sri Lanka
Rabies: Death from a scratch
Most rabies cases result from being bitten by an infected dog (file image)
Rabies is a viral infection which targets the nervous system and the brain.
It is deadly in 100 percent of cases left untreated – and has an incubation period of 20 to 60 days.
It is only spread by infected animals to humans, most often through the animal biting or scratching the person.
It can also be spread by an animal’s saliva being in contact with a graze or cut on a human’s skin. The majority of rabies cases result from being bitten by an infected dog.
The symptoms of the illness include high temperatures, numbness at the area where the bite occurred and hallucinations. Some victims also have hydrophobia, which is a fear of water.
There are about 55,000 cases of rabies worldwide each year with most cases occurring in Africa and Asia.
Half of all rabies cases occur in India.
However, when he began to show signs of the disease, including difficulty swallowing, at the beginning of October, they took him to hospital in Lyon, according to thelocal.fr.
Rabies targets the nervous system and the brain – and while he was in intensive care, his condition continued to deteriorate.
He died on October 16, the Pasteur Institute said.
Around 60 people, including members of the boy’s family, along with staff and pupils at his school, have since received a rabies vaccination as a precaution.
Since 1924, there have been not been any cases of ‘indigenous’ rabies in humans in metropolitan France.
There have been 23 cases of people contracting the condition while abroad since 1970 – the last being three years ago, according to health authorities.
Rabies, a neglected disease of vulnerable populations, is 100 per cent fatal but also nearly 100 per cent preventable through canine vaccination.
Africa and India still bear the highest burden of total annual rabies deaths.
Countries with the highest fatalities from rabies are India, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, China and Myanmar.