Karnataka stray dog menace: 4-year-old Davanagere girl mauled in April succumbs to rabies in Bengaluru; battled for 4 months with ‘dumb rabies’

DAVANAGERE/BENGALURU: A four-year-old girl from Davanagere, who had been battling for life for the past four months after being mauled by a stray dog, succumbed to rabies at a hospital in Bengaluru on Sunday.

The victim, Khadeera Banu of Shastri Layout in Davanagere, was attacked on April 27 while playing outside her house. The dog bit her on the face and other parts of the body, leaving her critically injured. With her condition worsening, doctors in Davanagere advised the family to shift her to Bengaluru for treatment. Khadeera's father is a street vendor and her mother a homemaker.

Khadeera was admitted to Bengaluru's Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) on April 28.

Dr Keshav, who treated her at IGICH, said the child had already received treatment elsewhere and was brought with a history of rabies. Girl suffered from dumb rabies: Doc We conducted three confirmatory tests, including a CSF fluid test. All returned positive with rising titres, confirming rabies. At that time, the child was stable and discharged for home care," he said. "When the child returned in Aug, she was in a deeper encephalopathic state - unresponsive and requiring emergency intubation.

This is what we call dumb rabies, where the disease causes paralysis rather than aggression. She showed no reflexes and we lost her Sunday noon," he added.While Khadeera's family claimed they had spent nearly Rs 8 lakh on her treatment, Dr Keshav said the total bill would not cross Rs 60,000-70,000. "Our charges are minimal. Tests done in the first week would not exceed Rs 5,000 a day, while ICU charges are capped at Rs 3,000-4,000 per day.

Even if they had stayed for 100 days, the total bill would not cross Rs 60,000-70,000. The Rs 8 lakh cited may include expenses on travel, rent, and consultations elsewhere."Khadeera's death has once again turned the spotlight on the growing menace of stray dog attacks in Karnataka. Between Jan and Aug this year, the state reported 2.8 lakh dogbite cases and 26 suspected rabies deaths, according to the state surveillance unit's infectious disease report.