Durban - A KWAZULU-NATAL man has died of rabies after he was bitten by an infected dog last year, with the authorities now warning people to undergo the recommended treatment once the diagnosis has been confirmed.
KZN remains among the top two provinces with a high risk of rabies.
In 2019, KZN and the Eastern Cape had four laboratory-confirmed cases of rabies each, while Limpopo had two.
Six more deaths - three each in KZN and the Eastern Cape - were classified as probable rabies cases.
Commonly, the source of human rabies in South Africa is from dogs infected with the rabies virus.
Moreover, the risk of rabies from the bite of a wild animal, although rare, is not often recognised.
According to the National Institute for Communicable Disease (NICD), a 36-year-old man bitten on the arm by a stray dog in Durban on September 18, died recently.
The NICD said the man went to a local clinic for medical treatment, but did not go for the rabies post-exposure prophylaxis at the referral hospital.
“Prior to his death on December 21, he presented with symptoms compatible with rabies, including a headache, vomiting and difficulty breathing, confusion, hallucinations, restlessness, hyper-salivation, and hydrophobia.
“A post-mortem was not conducted,” the NICD said.
Nicky Koekemoer, founder of Four Paws and a Tale Rescue, which operates on the South Coast, said she had heard of a recent rabies case in Umzinto, and three in eManzimtoti.
A s result, the uMdoni Municipality ran a rabies clinic last week, she said.
“There is definitely rabies here,” Koekemoer said.
“And people don’t understand how dangerous it is
“We work a lot in the townships and rural areas, and people know very little about rabies.”
Koekemoer said she feeds about 200 dogs and 45 cats. It is dangerous for her to work with these animals, if they are not vaccinated. It was even worse for those who lived with dogs which were not vaccinated, she said.
“The last time I checked, one bottle of rabies vaccine cost R25 and this vaccinates about 10 dogs,” she said.
The Animal Diseases Act, 1984 (Act No 35 of 1984) requires that all domestic dogs and cats in South Africa be vaccinated against rabies, twice in the first year with a booster vaccine every three years thereafter.
In her 2019/20 budget speech, KZN agriculture and rural development MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi said her department was targeting to vaccinate 345000 dogs and cats against rabies, in an attempt to eliminate human fatalities in KZN.
Her department had put aside R2.5million to support the compulsory community service project.