S’wak dog-bitten boy in Malacca Hospital stable

NIBONG TEBAL: A six-year-old boy from Sarawak admitted to the Malacca Hospital for suspected rabies is in stable condition, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya.

It would be known in in two or three days from tests whether the Bidayuh boy had contracted rabies, he said to reporters after visiting the Sungai Bakap Maternal and Health Clinic quarters here yesterday.

Malacca director of health Datuk Dr Ghazali Othman had said that the boy, whose father is a soldier serving in Malacca, was believed to have been bitten by a rabid dog in Serian, Sarawak.

Meanwhile, two girls, aged 11 and 12, who were bitten by rabid dogs in Kuala Sepetang, Taiping, in Perak did not show symptoms of rabies and were allowed to return home following administration of vaccine after being in the Taiping Hospital for 11 days.

Dr Hilmi said the Perak Health Department would monitor them until they regained their health.

“The people in the locality must be wary of bites by dogs and cats and seek immediate treatment,” he said.

On another matter, he said the National Blue Ocean Strategy approach between the Health Ministry and Skills Training Institute in the renovation of health clinic staff quarters nationwide could reduce costs by between 40 and 50 percent.

So far, 40 of the 56 quarters in 10 locations had been renovated in less than two months.

“The ministry is able to save cost through the NBOS programme because we are only spending RM650,000 for the renovation of the 56 quarters compared to the over RM1 million that will be incurred going through the normal process,” he said.