A Norwegian woman passed away after she contracted rabies from a stray puppy while having a vacation in the Philippines, reported Agence France-Presse.
Birgitte Kallestad, 24, was in the middle of a holiday with her friends back in February when she saw the helpless puppy on the side of the road. She picked it up and took it with them back to their resort.
The family of the victim said that she even washed, took care, and played with the puppy before it started to bite her.
Kallestad then returned to Norway after their vacation but she fell ill soon after she got home.
Unfortunately, she died on Monday at the hospital where she worked and local reports noted that it was the first rabies-related death in Norway for more than 200 years.
Following her death, Kallestad’s family said that she only sterilized the “small scrapes” she had in her body which she got from the puppy.
She, however, did not seek further medical attention not knowing that the puppy’s bite was fatal.
It was also reported that she visited a hospital’s emergency room in Norway several times but doctors were unable to diagnose her illness in time.
Rabies is an infectious viral disease transmitted from animals to humans via bites and saliva that can eventually affect the brain and nervous system in humans.
According to the World Health Organization, domestic dogs are responsible for 99% of the cases of rabies virus transmission to humans.
