KUCHING: Four deaths have been reported due to rabies recently, with one of them recently reported on June 5 at the Sarawak General Hospital.
Its director, Dr Veronica Lugah said one of the deceased contracted the infection through a dog bite while the others got infected through their own pet animals.
"The cause of these three cases is due to their own pet cats or dogs which were kept in the house but did not receive anti-rabies vaccination," she said in a statement today.
"The owners of the pets also did not receive any treatment or anti-rabies vaccination at any health facility after being bitten or scratched," she added.
Therefore, she said with the increase in cases, the cumulative cases of rabies among humans in Sarawak reported are still high which are 79 cases with 72 deaths.
She also said that there have been 56,023 cases of dog bites, 47,258 cases of cat bites and scratches, and 1,577 bites from other animals reported.