A 13-year-old boy from Kancheepuram district died of rabies last week, nearly four months after being bitten by a stray dog and receiving treatment from a traditional healer instead of medical care, health officials said. Authorities described the death as entirely preventable and attributed it to lack of awareness.

Bite incident and traditional treatment

The deceased, B Sabarivasan, a resident of Chinnivakkam village in Kundrathur taluk, was a student of a local government school and lived with his grandmother and sister.

According to officials, the boy was bitten by a rabies-infected stray dog on September 13 last year while playing outside his house. As his father was away at work, his grandmother allegedly took him to a traditional healer, who cleaned the wounds and applied an onion poultice. No anti-rabies vaccine or medical treatment was administered.

Symptoms appear months later

Last week, Sabarivasan developed high fever, difficulty in swallowing food and water, and severe body stiffness. He was first taken to Kancheepuram Government Hospital, where doctors confirmed rabies.

He was later referred to Chengalpattu Government Hospital and subsequently to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, where he died on Thursday.

Health officials stress prevention

Kancheepuram Deputy Director of Health Services T R Senthil said rabies is completely preventable if post-bite treatment is initiated on time. He noted that the district has 29 primary health centres equipped to handle dog-bite cases and treats over 1,000 such cases every month.

Officials said the traditional healer’s facility would be inspected and awareness campaigns intensified. Preventive anti-rabies vaccination was administered to nine close contacts of the boy, and health checks were conducted among his schoolmates.

Stray dog menace raises concern

Villagers said the rabies-infected dog had bitten at least five people before being killed. One resident alleged that the locality has a large population of unvaccinated stray dogs, calling for urgent intervention.

Health authorities urged the public to seek immediate medical care after any animal bite, warning against unscientific treatments.