By Huda Ata
Copyright gulfnews
Dubai: She had survived war, only to lose her life in exile. The death of Jouri Mohamed Abu Awad, a young Palestinian girl who fled Gaza with her family earlier this year, has stirred grief and anger across Egypt and beyond after she succumbed to rabies weeks after being bitten by a dog.According to Egyptian health officials and local media, the 7-year-old was attacked by a dog nearly two months ago inside a gated residential compound in 6th of October City, on the outskirts of Cairo. The bite went untreated; she never received the rabies vaccine that public hospitals in Egypt provide free of charge.By the time symptoms appeared, fever, agitation, and muscle spasms, it was too late. Jouri was admitted to Abbasia Fever Hospital in Cairo, where doctors reported her condition deteriorated rapidly. She died of cardiac arrest and circulatory collapse, complications linked to rabies infection.Rabies, a viral disease transmitted through the saliva of infected animals, is nearly always fatal once clinical symptoms develop. Yet it is one of the most preventable infectious diseases, immediate wound cleaning and post-exposure vaccination almost always stop the virus.Jouri’s father was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza earlier this year. In February, her mother brought Jouri and her four siblings to Egypt, joining the thousands of Palestinians who have sought refuge since the war began. The mother later left the country to receive medical treatment abroad, leaving the children in Cairo.
