(JP) Second rabies case results in travel alert

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Thursday, Nov. 23, 2006

 

Second rabies case results in travel alert

Compiled from AP, Kyodo

 

The health ministry started warning travelers

Wednesday to stay away from dogs while in overseas

areas with rabies problems after another Japanese man

was found to have contracted the disease from being

bitten in the Philippines.

 

The ministry said warning posters were scheduled to go

up at airport quarantine offices the same day.

 

" Be careful not to be bitten by dogs, " says the

poster, which shows a map of infected areas around the

world and a photograph of a dog bearing its teeth.

" Once developed, rabies almost certainly kills you. "

 

A man from Yokohama has developed symptoms of rabies

after being bitten by a dog in the Philippines in

August, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry

reported Wednesday.

 

The man, in his 60s, is in critical condition at a

Yokohama hospital. If confirmed as rabies, the case

will be Japan's second since a man from Kyoto who died

Friday. The Kyoto man, also in his 60s and bitten by a

dog in the Philippines, became the first confirmed

case of rabies in Japan since 1970.

 

The places where the men were bitten are more than 100

km apart, the ministry said.

 

The ministry is urging people to get vaccinated if

bitten, even if they are unsure they have contracted

the disease, because rabies is nearly always fatal if

symptoms develop. The ministry plans to warn travelers

to be more watchful of dogs and other mammals in areas

where the disease frequently occurs.

 

The Yokohama man was bitten on the right wrist in

August, the ministry said. He had been living in the

Philippines for about two years and returned to Japan

on Oct. 22. He started complaining of flulike symptoms

on Nov. 15.

 

On Monday, he developed conditions peculiar to rabies,

including fear of water, it said. " Honestly, we are

surprised that this has happened again just a week

after a man developed rabies in the first case in 36

years, " said Hiroshi Takimoto, head of the ministry's

infectious disease information management office.

 

" Between 30,000 and 50,000 people die from rabies

worldwide every year. Judging from the fact that

Japanese are traveling to various countries, it is

rather surprising we haven't gotten any reports of

infection " until now, he added.