Two children from Nghe An Province, north-central Vietnam have died following suspected dog bites.

Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital confirmed on Wednesday it had recently received two young patients in critical conditions.

Doctors believed that the patients had been bitten by dogs and were infected with rabies.

In the first case, three-year-old L.B.T. showed symptoms, such as vomiting and convulsions, before his family took him to a district hospital for examination.  

T. was then transferred to Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital for emergency treatment, with symptoms including respiratory failure, prolonged convulsions, profuse sputum secretion, and dread of wind and water.

Family members said T. often played with dogs and cats, and that a dog raised by the family recently died of unknown causes.

Doctors diagnosed T. with rabies.

Despite the treatment, the young boy eventually passed away.

The second patient, nine-year-old V.Q.H., also contracted rabies and did not survive.

Doctors said the patient did not receive any vaccination after coming into contact with an infected animal.

Rabies is a dangerous infectious disease transmitted from animals to humans mainly through bites or wounds, said Dr. Tran Van Cuong, head of the emergency department at Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital.

The fatality rate of rabies is nearly 100 percent, and there is no specific treatment for the disease.

Vaccination is still the only effective way to prevent rabies for people bitten by dogs, Cuong stated.

Nearly 520,000 dogs are raised by residents in Nghe An, of which only 20 percent are vaccinated, according to the provincial department of livestock and veterinary medicine.

The province recorded five deaths by rabies in 2022.

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