Rabies patient brought to Lahore for treatment

Doctors say Tauseef’s disease has progressed too far.

GUJRANWALA: A man diagnosed with rabies was shifted to the Jinnah Hospital in Lahore for treatment after his condition deteriorated.

Tauseef, 22, a resident of Kotli Udbang, was bitten by a dog a year ago. His family tied him up with ropes after he became extremely violent.

Tauseef’s father, Saeed, said that his son was a labourer and only earned Rs4,000 a month. “He was returning from work when a dog bit him. We could not afford the vaccine,” Saeed said, adding that over the past few days Tauseef’s latent disease had emerged and symptoms had gotten more and more severe.

“We had to tie him up when his mouth began to foam and he began to have convulsions,” he said, adding that when his mother brought him a glass of water Tauseef attacked her. “The doctor told us that it was a symptom of the disease because patients often suffered hallucinations and we tried to contain him,” he said. The doctors in Lahore said that Tauseef developed rabies almost a week ago.

Two Health Department teams are trying to cure him. “The rabies vaccine is supposed to be administered immediately after the bite. His disease remained untreated for too long but we are trying to do our best to save him,” Dr Altaf Bajwa said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2010.