Odisha dog attack: National para-athlete among two dead from rabies

A 33-year-old para-athlete of national caliber and another man succumbed to rabies in Odisha's Bolangir, days after they had been bitten by a rabid dog, the police said. The victims — athlete Jogendra Chhatria and 48-year-old farmer Hrushikesh Rana — had received serious injuries on July 23 when the dog turned ferocious, biting six individuals, including school children, in different incidents during the day.

Witnesses reported the dog attacked unprovoked. Chhatria was badly injured in his face. Four of the wounded recovered while Chhatria and Rana's conditions deteriorated, and they died despite intensive medical care. Officials said that even though the two victims had received post-bite vaccines, the infection spread quickly because of the severity and position of Chhatria's wounds.

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“All the injured were vaccinated after being admitted. Jogendra Chhatria received his first dose on July 23, followed by subsequent doses. However, because the dog had bitten his face, the infection spread quickly. Before their deaths, both victims exhibited the full symptoms of rabies,” the Superintendent of Bhima Bhoi Medical College said in a statement.

Chhatria was quite famous for playing for India in national floorball tournaments and for his para-athletic success. During the wave of dog attacks, health officials have called for residents to be on their guard and get timely anti-rabies vaccinations for both themselves and their animals. The two fatalities due to dog bites in Bhubaneswar are in the wake of a controversy raging over the Supreme Court's direction to catch, sterilise, and relocate permanently all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR.

On August 11 the Supreme Court of India issued a sweeping order: within eight weeks, every stray dog in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR) including Noida, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad must be rounded up, vaccinated, sterilised, and housed in shelters—never to return to the streets. CCTV monitoring, helplines, and penalties for obstruction were also ordered.