Brajesh Solanki, a gold medalist, rescued a stray puppy from a drain and suffered a minor bite, which he ignored, thinking it was just a scratch (Pic: Instagram/iStock)
A state-level Kabaddi player died in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahar two months after he was bitten by a stray puppy and did not take a rabies vaccine. According to news reports, 22-year-old Brajesh Solanki, a gold medalist, rescued a stray puppy from a drain and suffered a minor bite, which he ignored, thinking it was just a scratch.
A video showing his deteriorating condition surfaced online and has gone viral, a day after succumbing to the deadly virus. Brajesh’s coach said his symptoms appeared only days before the death. "Brijesh mistook the pain in his arm for a regular kabaddi injury. The bite seemed minor and he didn't think it was serious, so he didn't take the vaccine," Praveen Kumar told Times of India.
Last week, Brijesh reported numbness during practice, and when the condition deteriorated, he was taken to a district hospital. Later, he had to be shifted to Noida as his condition kept worsening. "All of a sudden, he was afraid of water and was showing symptoms of rabies, but we were denied treatment at the government hospitals in Khurja, Aligarh, and even Delhi. It was only in Noida that doctors confirmed he was likely infected with rabies,” said Brajesh’s brother, Sandeep Kumar.
What is rabies?
Rabies or RABV virus gets transmitted through direct contact like broken skin or mucous membranes in your eyes, nose, or mouth with saliva or brain and nervous system tissue from an infected animal. According to experts, rabies is fatal but preventable, but it can spread if you get bitten or scratched by a rabid animal.
Doctors say the rabies virus gets into your body when the saliva or spit of an infected animal gets into an open wound, usually from a bite. It moves very slowly along nerves into your central nervous system - brain and spinal cord. When it reaches your brain, the damage causes neurological symptoms. From there, rabies leads to coma and death.
How does the rabies virus move across your body?
Doctors say rabies moves from an infected wound to your brain over time. There are several phases that most people go through: incubation, prodromal phase, acute neurologic phase, and coma.
In the incubation phase, rabies virus spends days to weeks in your body before it gets into your nervous system, and you will not have any symptoms during this time. Thereafter, it travels through your nerve cells into your brain and spinal cord, causing nerve damage as it goes. The prodromal phase starts when the rabies virus has entered your nervous system.
In the third acute neurological phase, the rabies virus starts damaging your brain and spinal cord, causing symptoms like aggression, seizures, and delirium. Many people enter a coma in the final stages of a rabies infection. Rabies eventually leads to death.
Signs and symptoms of rabies
- High fever
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Tiredness and fatigue
- Bite wound burning, itching, tingling, pain, or numbness
- Cough and sore throat
- Muscle pain
- Nausea and vomiting.
- Agitation, aggression, and restlessness
- Seizures and hallucinations
- Fast breathing and excessive salivation
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Facial paralysis
- Fear of water/drinking
- Tingling, “pins and needles,” or other strange sensations
- Paraylsis
- Coma
