A British woman has died from rabies after she was \u00ab\u00a0scratched\u00a0\u00bb by a puppy in Morocco, her family said.<\/p>\n
Yvonne Ford, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, had light contact with the stray dog while on holiday in February in the North African country.<\/p>\n
In a social media post, reported by the Press Association, Mrs Ford’s family said she developed a headache two weeks ago and later couldn’t \u00ab\u00a0walk, talk, sleep, swallow\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said there was no risk to the wider public due to no documented evidence of rabies passing between people.<\/p>\n
Mrs Ford was diagnosed at Barnsley Hospital after returning to the UK, the hospital trust confirmed.<\/p>\n
In the Facebook post, her daughter Robyn Thomson said the family \u00ab\u00a0is still processing this unimaginable loss\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0She was scratched very slightly by a puppy in Morocco in February,\u00a0\u00bb she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0At the time, she did not think any harm would come of it and didn’t think much of it.<\/p>\n
She continued: \u00ab\u00a0Two weeks ago she became ill, starting with a headache and resulted in her losing her ability to walk, talk, sleep, swallow. Resulting in her passing.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Close contacts of Mrs Ford and health workers were being assessed and offered vaccinations when necessary as a precaution, a UKHSA spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
Source: World Health Organisation\/NHS\/UKHSA<\/p>\n
Ms Thomson added: \u00ab\u00a0We never thought something like this could happen to someone we love.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Please take animal bites seriously, vaccinate your pets, and educate those around you.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Six cases of human rabies connected to animal exposure abroad have been reported in the UK between 2000 and 2024.<\/p>\n
Rabies is particularly common in Asia and Africa, the UKHSA said, with people visiting affected countries advised to avoid contact with dogs, cats and other animals wherever they can.<\/p>\n
The agency also advised people to seek advice about the need for a rabies vaccine before travel.<\/p>\n
Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A British woman has died from rabies after she was \u00ab\u00a0scratched\u00a0\u00bb by a puppy in Morocco, her family said. Yvonne Ford, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, had light contact with the stray dog while on holiday in February in the North African country. In a social media post, reported by the Press Association, Mrs Ford’s family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}