Failure to administer prompt post exposure treatment lead to death of man bitten by rabid cat

An inquest into the death of Omar Zouhri, who died after being bitten by a rabid cat while on holiday in Morocco, came to the conclusion that despite the man’s best efforts he had not received proper and prompt exposure treatment (ironically ‘PET’) in Morocco which is probably the main cause of his death.

Man infected with rabies
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Omar Zouhri – the last photo. Photo: Mirrorpix.

I wrote about this gentleman some time ago. Mr Zouhri contracted rabies on August 31 in the northern city of Meknes, Morocco, when a stray cat lept at him biting his right ring finger. The inquest heard that the same cat had bitten six other people within half an hour biting Mr Zouhri, including a boy who later died.

Zouhri immediately went to hospital in Morocco where both he and his 12-year-old son were given tetanus injections. He was not given proper treatment for rabies at that time and complained to a local police station. This appears to be the defect in his postexposure treatment which ultimately led to his death.

In eary October after he’d returned to England he was told about the boy’s death by a Moroccan doctor and he went to Stoke Mandeville Hospital on October 5.

Useful links
Anxiety - reduce it
FULL Maine Coon guide - lots of pages
Children and cats - important

At this hospital he was not given treatment for five days. Extraordinarily, it transpired that a nurse had spoken to a doctor at the hospital (a registrar) who, she claims, told her that rabies came from dogs and not from cats. The nurse had not known of the hospital’s policy that a person who had been bitten by suspected rabid animal should be reported and managed urgently. In addition a microbiologist should be contacted.

Zouhri was flagged as a high-risk patient by Public Health England and was given treatment for rabies from October 12. He felt fine until October 27 but by October 30 he was in severe pain. In an another extraordinary step, he went to his GP, out of hours, on October 28 complaining that his finger itched and was advised to apply an anti-itch cream.

The rabies virus had by then ended his central nervous system rendering his condition terminal. He died on November 4 at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

“It seems unlikely that a five-day delay is causative but it remains a possibility that if the vaccine had been given five days earlier there may have been a different outcome.”

He was infected with “furious rabies”. This disease was eradicated in the UK in 1902.

Rabies is a zoonotic disease. Below are some articles on zoonotic diseases:

Source: Time newspaper – hard copy.

Flushing cat litter down the loo can spread Toxocara eggs to others and block sewers.

Flushing cat litter down the loo can transmit Toxocara eggs to others and block sewers

Water company comment on this In the UK, Collette Parker, Anglian Water customer engagement manager, said: This kind of animal ...
Read More
Ringworm transmitted to cat owners can be cured in minutes with UVB light

Can I cuddle my cat with ringworm?

NO. People ask whether they can cuddle their cat if their cat has ringworm. Through personal experience, I would strongly ...
Read More
Bird flu

Notes about bird flu, domestic cats and people

It might be useful just to briefly touch on the bird flu epidemic which affects America and other countries. I'm ...
Read More
H5N1

Bird flu kills five domestic cats in the United States of America

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a worrying development. I've written about bird flu before and the fact that it is ...
Read More
Cat scratch fever infection

Texas man partially lost his eyesight after his new cat frequently scratched him (it was cured)

A study has found the mainstream news media. It is about cat scratch fever (disease) causing partial blindness in a ...
Read More
Remains of lions at a South African lion farm

South Africa’s 8,000-12,000 farmed lions are diseased and a potential risk to human health

The Born Free Foundation tells us that there are as many as 8000-12,000 captive lions on lion farms in South ...
Read More
Sporothrix brasiliensis

Information and infographic on SPOROTRICHOSIS a fungal infection in cats which is spreading

For many people, this will be a new cat fungal infection. People are familiar with ringworm in cats which, too, ...
Read More
Useful tag. Click to see the articles: Cat behavior

Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.

Michael Broad

Hi, I'm a 74-year-old retired solicitor (attorney in the US). Before qualifying I worked in many jobs including professional photography. I love nature, cats and all animals. I am concerned about their welfare. If you want to read more click here.

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *