The health authorities of the Mexican state of Oaxaca confirmed this Thursday the death of an 8-year-old girl who contracted rabies from a bat bite, as did her 2-year-old sister and 7-year-old brother, who died last week. pass
“The Oaxaca Health Services reported that the 8-year-old patient, a native of the town of Palo de Lima, municipality of San Lorenzo Texmelúcan, who was receiving medical care at the Doctor Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital, died this Saturday January 7, ”said the institution in an information card.
This is the second death from wild rabies, a contagion that was confirmed by the Institute of Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference.
General view of the facade of the Doctor Aurelio Valdivieso General Hospital, in Oaxaca, on January 7, 2023. Jesús Méndez / EFE
The first death was that of a child under 7 years of age on December 28 who was the brother of the little girl who died this Saturday and who, along with another 2-year-old sister, who was already discharged on December 30, December, they were bitten by a bat while sleeping at home.
The under 2-year-old, who is the only one of the 3 siblings to survive, will receive a second dose of anti-rabies serum this month to ensure her health, the EFE news agency reported.
On January 2, the general director of epidemiology of the INDR, E Gabriel García, confirmed in a press conference that, after a brain biopsy performed on the first deceased minor, positive results were obtained for rabies, in its V3 variant of blood-sucking bat. , that is, it feeds on the blood of mammals.
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After confirmation, the authorities reported that in the municipality of Texmelucan and its surroundings where the minors were bitten, rabies vaccines were applied to farm animals and 1,200 more doses will be given.
They also urged citizens not to discriminate against people who have recovered or been exposed to the disease because the rabies virus is not transmitted from human to human.
At the end of December, the Mexican government ruled out issuing a health alert for the three suspected cases of rabies in Oaxaca and one more in the northern state of Chihuahua, where a young woman bitten by a semi-domestic cat tested positive for the virus and is receiving treatment.
