Eastern Cape authorities on high alert after suspected rabid donkey attacks people

One person has been hospitalised and several were injured after a donkey, suspected to be infected with rabies, attacked a group of people on Wednesday in Nqanqarhu (formerly known as Maclear) in the Eastern Cape.

The Department of Rural Development and Agriculture urged anybody who the donkey had bitten to come forward. They said the animal exhibited signs of rabies and was reported to have bitten several individuals, including a child.

Members of the South African Police Service euthanised the donkey after veterinarians from the department tried unsuccessfully to do so.

A state veterinarian in the Elundini district, Dr Chanelle Kyle, said that after the police euthanised the donkey, samples from it were sent to a laboratory for testing.

Two patients, one a young child, were treated at a clinic for bites from the donkey. On Thursday, authorities were trying to confirm that another person who had been bitten by the donkey had been hospitalised.

“The hospital has also been contacted and informed about the situation,” said Kyle.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ (NICD’s) fact sheet on rabies, it is “a zoonotic, vaccine-preventable viral disease that causes damage to the brain and spinal cord in infected animals and humans”.

A zoonotic disease can be transmitted between animals and humans. Once symptoms appear, rabies is virtually 100% fatal.

Kyle said every effort was being made to locate everyone who had been bitten by the donkey so they could receive rabies post-exposure prophylaxis — a series of vaccinations and medication that can prevent the development of rabies if administered promptly after exposure. There is no treatment for rabies in humans.

Rabies in animals may present as strange and aggressive behaviour and a generally unwell appearance. The animals can hallucinate and may snap or bite at imaginary objects, said the NICD.

Common signs and symptoms of rabies in humans include discomfort or pain at the site of the wound, fever, headache, nausea and vomiting.

This rapidly progresses to signs of neurological dysfunction, which may include changes in behaviour, anxiety, confusion and agitation. People with rabies can also display hypersalivation, aerophobia (fear of air) and hydrophobia (fear of water). Some people may have localised weakness and paralytic syndromes, which eventually progress to coma and death.

There have been outbreaks of rabies in the Eastern Cape. From July 2021 to February 2022, 430 canine cases were registered in Nelson Mandela Bay, with six people dying of the disease.

The NICD said three confirmed cases of the disease in humans had occurred in the Eastern Cape this year.

In 2017, a suspected case of rabies was reported in a child from Lusikisiki. The child was bitten by a donkey and fell ill with rabies-like symptoms.  DM