An 11-year-old girl in Rajahmundry succumbed to rabies, due to medical negligence, at a government hospital on Thursday morning.
Anusha was bitten by a mad dog a month ago, but was not vaccinated by the doctors, as they were out of supplies. On Wednesday night, the child's condition worsened and she was rushed to a government hospital in a critical state. The girl breathed her last on Thurday morning.
Anusha's grief-stricken mother blamed the negligent medical authorities for her daughter's death.
The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has taken up Anusha's case, and demanded that the Health Minister, the district minister and the hospital authorities submit a detailed report on the unavailability of the essential vaccine, and the negligence shown towards Anusha.
The hospital in question is said to have accepted that its medicine cabinets were not well-stocked, and that they did not have the rabies vaccine for more than a month. They were quick to add that they do have stocks of the vaccine at present.
The locals say that street dogs in the area were aplenty and that a person is bit by a dog every other day.
According to reports, any and all efforts to displace the street dogs were being hindered by a certain local group, and the local authorities were thus helpless about relieving the people of the menace of the street dogs.
filed in:Medical Negligence, Human Rights Commission, Medicine