Rabies from puppy kills another La Union villager

SAN FERNANDO, La Union, Philippines – Another resident in a village in Bacnotan town died of rabies Wednesday, a day after a 17-year-old neighbor also succumbed to the disease they both got from a puppy which had bitten them.

Romeo Murao, a councilman of Barangay Pandan in Bacnotan, said in a radio interview that Luis Alcantara became wild on Wednesday afternoon, chasing his neighbors while only clad in his underwear.

Barangay watchmen subdued Alcantara and brought him to the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center here. But doctors declined to admit him because of his severe rabies infection.

Alcantara’s family decided to bring him back home where he died a few hours later.

Alcantara, according to barangay health workers, did not seek treatment when he was bitten in a finger by the puppy, the same one that also bit 17-year-old Gian Carlo Acantilado last February.

Acantilado died on Tuesday. He also did not seek immediate medical treatment; his mother only subjected him to a “tandok,” a supposed traditional cure where the infectious rabies virus is sucked from the wound using magnetic stones or animal horn.

Health authorities have vaccinated 15 other villagers who have had contact with Acantilado and Alcantara when they were still alive. They are now under observation.