MANGALURU: The death of a 24-year-old engineering graduate reportedly due to rabies set off fears in his village in the district and more than 200 people took preventive shots in a week.Sources in the Nellyadi Primary Health Centre , 60km from here, said people got vaccinated amid fears that the rabies virus is communicable. At least 218 people were administered vaccination from August 29 to Tuesday afternoon. These include political workers and zilla panchayat members who attended the youth’s final rites.Two tests on the samples threw up conflicting reports — while a Mangaluru lab confirmed it was rabies, a Nimhans team in Bengaluru denied the presence of virus in the sample it tested. Though there’s no confirmation about the reported dog-bite incident, a source at Nellyadi health centre, quoting family members, said the boy was bitten by a pet at a friend’s house a year ago.“Some more people took the shot at Kokkada and Adyadka primary health centers , and a few others at private clinics,” Dr Harshitha, who’s in charge of the outpatient department at Nellyadi centre, told TOI. District health officer Dr Ramakrishna Rao said the department had dispatched 1,000 doses of the vaccination to Nellyadi and other centres to meet the demand for shots.Sources said about 500 people attended the final rites of Ashith, a resident of Kayartadka, Ichilampady. The ritual included pouring water into the mouth of the deceased. Only the next day did it emerge that Ashith had died of rabies. The fear that it’s contagious spread panic, leading to voluntary vaccination by the hundred.Ashith, who completed engineering from a college in Sullia recently, returned to his village six weeks ago and was looking for job. During a farming activity on August 25, Ashith developed pain in legs and found it difficult to walk. Doctors at a Puttur hospital, where he was initially treated, referred him to a hospital in Mangaluru. On August 27, he died at the hospital.Doctors studied the man’s blood reports and concluded he was a victim of rabies. They cautioned his family members against elaborate rituals at home over fears of infection and advised them to take the body directly to the burial ground. The youth’s parents followed due procedures as per their faith.“Nobody knew the cause of death until the rites were concluded. The hospital staff had informed the family members about rabies, but the latter didn’t pass on the message to the gathering. Since I had taken part in the ritual, I took vaccination as a preventive measure,” said zilla panchayat member Sarvottham Gowda

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