After milk-based dish at feast spreads rabies fear, MP villagers throng hospital for vaccine jabs

Gwalior, March 27

People of a village in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior district hurried to get anti-rabies vaccine shots after falsely believing that they could get the viral disease from eating a dish prepared from the milk of a buffalo that had been bitten by a rabid dog.

Health authorities in Chandpura village in the district’s Dabra tehsil even administered the shots to 25 people but heaved a sigh of relief as no one had shown any symptoms of the ailment, considered fatal, as on Sunday, an official said.

“Some 700 people ate a dish made from buffalo milk at a funerary feast held three days ago. The next day they got to know that the buffalo had been bitten by a dog with rabies, and that the animal and its calf had died,” Dabra Sub Divisional Magistrate Pradeep Sharma told PTI.

“They gathered at Dabra civil hospital demanding anti-rabies vaccine shots. Doctors there administered 25 jabs and also told people having the milk of rabid animals does not bring about the infection. However, only after a health team arrived from Gwalior did the villagers relent,” the SDM added.

No villager turned up for an anti-rabies vaccine shot on Sunday and nor have there been reports of anyone taking ill after having meals at the funerary feast, Sharma informed.

Rabies is a fatal but preventable viral disease that spreads due to the bite or scratch of an infected animal. While several mammals can be carriers, most deaths have been reported due to dog bites.