In 2004, Barnabas Korir took his family for a visit upcountry during the Christmas holidays. His little girl, eight-year-old Sharon Chepchumba, was excited about the trip. But if Barnabas had known the events that would unfold in the village, he would have kept his family in the city.
They arrived in Eldoret safely just two days before Christmas, and the next day, the children were shuttled off to their grandmother’s house in Nandi while their parents remained at their Eldoret home. The children were thrilled to be at their grandma’s and could soon be heard playing in the fields outside. And that is when disaster struck.
The neighbour’s dog was roaming nearby, and at one point, became visibly agitated and pounced on little Sharon, biting her at the back part of her shoulder.
“It was a very small incision: a very tiny – almost invisible – bite,” Barnabas says. What he didn’t know is that the tiny bite had started the clock on Sharon’s last days on Earth.
“Almost immediately my brother called me to say that Sharon had been bitten by a dog. He suggested that we take her to hospital to receive injection against rabies,” Barnabas says.
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This prompted Barnabas and his wife to make arrangements to get their daughter to a hospital in Eldoret town where Sharon got an anti-rabies vaccine. She was required to receive four other dosages spread over a period of 10 days. After going through the festivities of Christmas day, Barnabas and his family travelled back to Nairobi.
“We went straight to the hospital upon arrival so that she could receive a second injection. She went through the entire regimen.”
Back to school
Sharon seemed fine, and reported back to school as usual in January. They thought the rabies scare was finally behind them. However, a week later, on January 11, 2005, Sharon’s mother was called to school by one of her teachers.
“They said that Sharon was sick. My wife went to pick her up. She was vomiting and it didn’t look good at all.”
They made a beeline for the hospital where the doctor concluded that the girl was suffering from malaria.
She was treated for malaria and they went home.
“She however developed a high fever the next day. That night she couldn’t sleep.”
Early morning on January 13, at around 3am, Sharon’s condition had shifted from bad to worse. “We rushed her back to the hospital,” Barnabas says.
At the hospital her mother went in with her to the emergency room as her father waited in the lobby.
“While in the emergency room, Sharon began biting her mother. Luckily, my wife was fully clothed and the bite didn’t sink into her flesh.”
The doctors who witnessed Sharon attempting to bite her mother suspected rabies right away.
“That is when they advised that the girl be moved to a better health facility where her case could be handled,” the distraught father recalls.
By daybreak Sharon was fleeting in and out of consciousness.
Sharon was further referred to a paediatric facility in Nairobi where she was placed on life support – having at some point completely lost consciousness.
Later in the day, Sharon was pronounced dead. It had been exactly 20 days since the day she was bitten by the dog.
Losing Sharon prompted Barnabas and his wife to start the Sharon Live On Foundation: a non-governmental that spreads awareness about rabies and also carries out dog vaccinations across Kenya.
The Korirs have 3 other children and Barnabas has made sure that they understand the disease. “I have put each of them through some classes on rabies. I never want what happened to Sharon to happen to them,” Barnabas says.
SIDE BAR
FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT DOG BITES
It is impossible to arrive at the conclusion that a dog has the rabies virus by simply observing its behaviour.
1. Every dog bite has to be reported to authorities and medical help sought immediately. “Once a dog bites it is a race against time,” Dr Emily Mudoga says. Rabies is lethal. If the virus reaches the nervous system (and clinical symptoms begin showing) the patient has to die. There is no rabies patient known to have survived the disease.
2. Every dog owner should get the animal vaccinated against rabies. “It is easier (and cheaper) to vaccinate the dog. Rabies vaccines for dogs cost an average of Sh100,” notes the vet.
3. Once a dog has been vaccinated against the disease, it cannot contract it and hence won’t infect humans.
4. While about 99 per cent of rabies infections to humans are through dog bites, other mammals like cats can potentially transmit the virus.The virus is found in the saliva of infected mammals. Hence, a bite effectively introduces the virus into the blood stream of a bite victim.
5. Many rabies deaths go unrecorded as the disease has symptoms similar to other diseases like cerebral malaria, meningitis and some psychiatric conditions. “If a doctor is not informed of a dog bite then they may not suspect rabies. Cause of death therefore won’t capture the truth,” she says.
Since 2014, Dr Mudoga has presided over vaccination of 230,011 dogs in Makueni County; considered to be a high rabies area.
Source: Dr Emily Mudoga, a vet and the Companion Animals Manager in Africa with World Animal Protection
GLANCE BOX
Five injections of anti-rabies vaccines given to humans cost between Sh7500 (in public facilities) and Sh17, 500 (in private facilities).
