PUNE, Nov 30: During a game of cricket, when 23-year-old Kaustubh Ramchandra Gandhi was bitten on the hand by a stray pup on the BMCC College ground, little did he or his family realise that it would mean a painful death from rabies.While Kaustubh shrugged off the small bite on his hand and carried on with his life, a month later, symptoms of hydrophobia and aerophobia surfaced, causing panic in his family. His condition deteriorated and by the time the boy was brought to Pune Municipal Corporation-run Dr Naidu Hospital, it was too late to save his life.``When Kaustubh was brought here, he had acute symptoms of rabies,'' says Dr Ramchandra Pote. He was scared of water - he would not drink it and whenever there was a breeze, the boy trembled with fear. Restlessness and convulsions followed even as Kaustubh was put on the drip. ``It was impossible to give him water, so we did not do that. Instead the patient was put on IV fluid and sedation.'' By then it had been a month since Kaustubh had been bitten. ``When we started treating him, the bite wound had healed completely,'' adds Dr Pote. No precautions were taken by Gandhi and his family. Most do not take a dog bite on the hand very seriously. A bite on the chest, face or neck that evokes more concern.Kaustubh was admitted to the hospital at 12 noon on November 27 and by 2.30 p m the next day he was dead. ``While anti-rabies vaccination within 48 hours ensures the well-being of the patient, if the patient develops Frank Rabies, 100 per cent, there is no cure for it,'' he says.While Government hospitals still offer the 14 painful abdominal injections, the more sophisticated dose of five intra-muscular injections is available at private hospitals. Kaustubh died of cardio respiratory failure. Doctors are using his death as a warning to others. Dogs, cats, monkeys, jackals and other wild animals can be rabid. A rabid animal does not live beyond 15 days.
