Rabies case: woman dies

**CambCelt** · 28-05-2012, 20:41

From The Telegraph:

Rabies case: British woman dies in hospital - Telegraph

A British woman bitten by a puppy with rabies on a visit to India has died in a London hospital.

The woman, believed to have been a grandmother in her 50s of Asian origin, died in an isolation unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases at the weekend.

She was bitten about two months ago but only sought help when she started to feel ill, some seven weeks later.

The woman twice visited the accident and emergency department at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Kent, with mild and indistinct symptoms, but was sent home. Doctors later said she failed to inform them she had been bitten.

She was finally diagnosed after being referred by her GP to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, and then transferred to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

The delay in diagnosis is highly unlikely to have made any difference to chances of survival, experts have said.

**timey** · 28-05-2012, 21:07

Once she started feeling ill it was way too late. I've seen film of people with advancd rabies and it ain't nice.

**Earl** · 28-05-2012, 21:27

Why, what's it like?

**timey** · 28-05-2012, 21:55

It attacks your brain and nervous system, I remember that much, and you foam at the mouth. It's a slow, painful death.

**Earl** · 28-05-2012, 22:37

Blimey. Can't they do anything for them?

**timey** · 28-05-2012, 22:47

Once it gets past a certain stage, no. If you are bitten by a rabid animal the only chance you have is to have a series of painful injections as soon as possible. Leave it any longer and you are stuffed. Of course, sometimes people have to have the injections just in case the animal that bit you had rabies, as you couldn't take the chance.