A 7-year-old boy died this Thursday in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, after allegedly contracting rabies from a bat bite, state authorities in the south of the country reported.
"Unfortunately, and despite the efforts of health specialists, the minor lost his life at 5:06 p.m. that day," reported officials at the Doctor Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital, where the victim was hospitalized.
This is one of four recent cases that present clinical symptoms compatible with rabies, although the authorities warned that they are still waiting for the results of laboratory tests to confirm it.
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The other three possible cases correspond to two sisters of the deceased minor (a 2-year-old baby and an 8-year-old girl), who are also suspected to have been bitten by marsupials in the Oaxacan town of San Lorenzo Texmelucan, as well as a young woman who would have contracted the virus from a cat bite in the northern state of Chihuahua.
The baby was reported as stable and is responding to treatment, according to Mexican media.
But the 8-year-old girl is in serious condition, sedated and under mechanical ventilation in the same hospital where her brother died.
View of the Doctor Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital in Oaxaca, Mexico.Google Maps
"The minor will continue with comfort measures and under medical treatment, however, the health prognosis remains serious," local authorities said.
The 29-year-old woman from Chihuahua who was bitten by a cat with symptoms of rabies was transferred to a hospital in the neighboring state of Nayarit since last week, reported the newspaper El Heraldo de Chihuahua.
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The young woman remains sedated in the hospital and connected to a mechanical ventilator.
Doctors indicate that her recovery prognosis "is guarded."
The family confirmed to the aforementioned medium that the cat had not been vaccinated against rabies and that he died three days later with symptoms compatible with the virus.
The Undersecretary for Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell, during his participation in a press conference with the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on December 27, 2022. Mario Guzmán / EFE
The Government of Mexico has ruled out the existence of a health alert for the four probable cases of rabies detected so far.
The undersecretary for Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell, reported Wednesday that specialists were waiting for laboratory results to confirm the cases, adding that the children had received prophylactic treatment, a vaccine, and an antibody to try to neutralize the virus.
In the last 24 hours, no more cases of possible rabies have been reported in the country.