THE rabies infected Sarawakian siblings who were taken off life support yesterday were the country’s first recorded deaths from the disease in nearly 20 years.

“As far as I know, these are the first recorded deaths from rabies,” said Dr Jeffrey Stephen, assistant director of the Sarawak Health Department’s (SHD) Communicable Disease Control Section (CDC).

“Before this, the state was declared as rabies free. They are extremely rare,” he said when contacted today.

SHD director Dr Jamilah Hashim said the deaths were the first case in “recent memory”.

The last known death from rabies in Malaysia was on January 8, 1998 when a three-year-old girl died at the Sungai Petani Hospital, Kedah.

She had been bitten by a stray dog outside her house in Padang Lembu on Nov 29, 1997, according to archived news reports.

Malaysia was declared rabies-free by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in 2012 before an outbreak occurred in July 2015 in northeastern Peninsula states.

Over a period of three months, Perlis recorded 22 cases of humans infected with rabies, while Kedah and Penang recorded 18 and four cases respectively.

No deaths were recorded as the patients were treated before symptoms appeared. The outbreak ended in mid-September.

The state governments lifted orders for mass culling of dogs early October after 4,500 dogs were killed. Alongside the cullings, over 8,150 dogs were vaccinated.

Kota Setar appears to be a rabies hotspot. Prior to the death of the girl in 1998, Kota Setar also saw three deaths in 1997 with one more fatality recorded in 1992.

Kota Setar is about 60km away from the Thai border.

The Sarawak government has yet to announce any mass culling and the SHD has instead advised parents to keep their children indoors and for pet dogs to be leashed.

Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas said the disease may have been brought to the area via mammals from Indonesia.

“We are tightening the borders. We are now deploying the police and army to stop any transfer of dogs or cats from Kalimantan,” he was quoted by The Borneo Post as saying after chairing a state disaster management committee meeting yesterday.

The deceased children, a six-year-old girl and her four-year-old brother, were from Kampung Paon, Sungai Rimu, about 70km from Kuching in the Serian district.

The boy came down with fever and was hospitalised at the Serian Hospital on June 9. Her sister followed suit on June 15.

A third rabies-infected patient, a seven-year-old girl, is critically ill. The girl from Kampung Lebur, Gedong in the Simunjan district was hospitalised at the Serian Hospital on June 23.

The villages are about 15km apart and the Kalimantan border is at least 50km from either village.

The Sarawak government yesterday declared five villages in Serian as rabies-affected areas, mandating all household dogs within a 10km radius of the villages to be vaccinated.

The villages are Kampung Paon Rimu, Kampung Lebur, Kampung Paun Rimu Bakung, Kampung Remun and Kampung Kerait.

“The surveillance area (was extended) to 10km from ground zero because we have been informed that when a dog is infected by rabies, it will die within three to nine days – its movement will be limited and so on,” Uggah said.

Meanwhile, Uggah was criticised for an earlier claim that there were no government veterinary clinics in the state due to budget cuts.

“I urge for the setting up of government veterinary clinics in the different towns to provide better access and affordable medical care to make sure diseases like this are preventable,” Dr Kelvin Yii, special assistant to state DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen said in a statement.

“We do not want any more unwanted incidents as well as lives to be prematurely taken away just because of the negligence of certain quarters,” he said.

Public enquiries can be made through the SHD Hotline at 082-443248/082-441780, available everyday from 8am till 5pm. – July 5, 2017.