‘Not just a dog bite’: why India is struggling to keep rabies at bay

The government is being urged to dispel myths and ensure drugs are available - and take responsibility for the millions of stray dogs

By the time the patient, a young man, reached Dr Ramesh Masthi at a Bengaluru hospital, it was too late to save him. After being bitten by a pack of stray dogs as he went out to buy some milk, his family had applied a paste of green chillis, then lime juice and finally, when the wound looked gruesome, turmeric.

He came about a week after he was bitten. The wound was serious, and we couldn't save him. There is so much ignorance about dog bites and myths. A rabies shot in time would have saved him," Masthi says.