A man who had been admitted to Karachi’s Jinnah hospital with rabies four days ago died here on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old Muhammad Saleem Ditta, had been admitted with irritability, difficulty swallowing and hydrophobia after which he developed rabies encephalitis.

He was bitten by a stray dog in Karachi 40 days ago while trying to protect his daughter from the animals.

According to his family, he went to several public hospitals in search of the anti-rabies vaccine but it wasn’t available anywhere.

Saleem had been brought to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) in sensitive condition after being taken to Sindh Government Hospital, New Karachi and later Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

The deceased Muhammad Saleem was the father of six children and the sole sponsor of his family.

He fought for his life for two days in the hospital which failed last night.

It is pertinent to mention that in the last 10 months in Sindh, more than 100,000 people have become victims of stray dog bites.

Due to unavailability of the anti-rabies vaccines, the toll rises to nine at Jinnah hospital while the overall death count reaches 18 in Karachi.

Any person who is bitten by a stray dog should be immediately given immunoglobulin and four to five doses of the anti-rabies vaccine, experts say, to prevent the affected person from developing rabies encephalitis, which is a hundred percent lethal and incurable disease.