A five-year-old boy, who was bitten by stray dogs in a Kasur village on Sunday, died at a local hospital here on Monday.

Stray dogs had attacked minor Ayaan when he was playing outside his house in the Maan Village in Kasur District on Sunday. He was injured critically and taken to the District Headquarters Hospital in Kasur for treatment. Ayaan fought for life for 48 hours before he succumbed to his injuries. The district administration has failed so far to eliminate stray dogs from Kasur.

Punjab and Sindh have seen an unprecedented surge in dog-bite cases in recent years. In Sargodha District of Punjab, a 13-year-old student succumbed to his injuries after stray dogs attacked him last week. An investigation on Monday held the local government officials responsible for the death of Saim and recommended action against the Bhalwal assistant director, chief officer and the union council secretary.

Sindh too has been in the news in recent years due to the rising incidents of dog-bite cases. On Sunday, a minor dog-bite victim succumbed to his injuries in Sukkur allegedly after the hospital staff failed to administer him the anti-rabies vaccine on time.

The boy, identified as four-year-old Hidayatullah, was a resident of a village in the Saleh Pat Tehsil in Sukkur District. Hidayatullah’s uncle Alam Abu Poto said the boy died because the hospital staff failed to administer him dog-bite vaccination even after three days of admission.

Earlier on January 8, a woman from rural Sindh died because of rabies after she was bitten by stray dogs. She was a resident of Hamzo Khan Rind Village in the Bajara Union Council – electoral constituency of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah. The deceased was 30 years old and mother of four, including a 40-day-old infant. Her husband Deen Mohammad told the local media that he shifted his wife from Sehwan to Hyderabad because the Sehwan hospital did not have the anti-rabies vaccine.

On January 2, a teen from Shikarpur in Sindh developed full-blown rabies after he was bitten by a rabid dog. He was taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) in Karachi for treatment, but he could not survive. “Shahid Iqbal, 19, a resident of Shikarpur, became the year’s first victim of rabies encephalitis and died during treatment at JPMC Thursday afternoon.

He was being provided palliative care at an isolation ward of the JPMC. The patient was bitten by a dog some three months ago and apparently he was not administered anti-rabies vaccine (ARV),” Dr Seemin Jamali, JPMC executive director, told the media.

At least 24 people died of rabies in Sindh in 2019 as they were not administered ARV on time. According to a report published in November 2019, at least 630 dog-bite cases were being reported in Sindh every day on an average.

Sindh Health Minister Azra Pechuho informed the provincial legislature on August 20 that more than 92,000 cases of dog bite were reported across Sindh in one year, from June 2018 to June 2019. “Dog bite is a serious problem and rabies is highly dangerous. Such matters need serious thought to strategise and protect our people,” said the minister while speaking on a private resolution moved by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Seema Zia.