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Mary Ann Benitez

Medical experts said yesterday the death of a Filipino maid from rabies should prompt health care professionals in Hong Kong to be more aware of the disease.

Health and animal welfare authorities also should investigate whether it could have been caught in the SAR, one vet said, as the maid's family continued to insist she had not been bitten by a dog in the Philippines.

Lorna Capayan, 37, died on September 28 at United Christian Hospital, where she was diagnosed to be suffering from viral encephalitis.

On Monday, the Department of Health announced a postmortem examination showed she died from rabies.

The department classified the case as imported. Capayan, a mother of three who arrived in the SAR three months ago to work for a family in Sai Kung, had no history of having been bitten by an animal in Hong Kong.

The Hospital Authority said last night rabies was not suspected in her case because she did not tell doctors she had been bitten either locally or overseas when she attended United Christian Hospital's accident and emergency department on September 15 and 19.

The victim's relatives in Hong Kong and the northern Philippine province of Nueva Vizcaya continue to insist Capayan had not told them of being bitten in the Philippines.

The victim's husband, Carlo Magno Pasion, said by phone from their home in Solano: 'She had not been bitten by a dog or any animal here. I should know. We know it is dangerous when you are bitten by a dog.'

He said he was surprised to learn she had become seriously ill just two months after arriving in Hong Kong on July 14.

'It hurts, her dying. She was a good person, and many people loved her. She had many friends,' he said.

Relatives Aida Violeta and Evangeline Tiongson also said Capayan had not told the family of any animal bites.

Vet Dr Saul Chemonge, who has a clinic in Sai Kung, said: 'There is a lot of politics involved in saying where rabies comes from. The issue is that somebody has died of rabies. Do we work together to ensure no animal or person has been infected and investigate to get other possible sources of infection?'

Dr Chemonges said he was not surprised doctors in Hong Kong failed to diagnose rabies because it was rare in the SAR. The disease was reasonably controlled with vaccinations for dogs, but many stray dogs around Sai Kung had not been immunised.

Once stray dogs had it, the disease would become much more difficult to control, he said.

Legislator Dr Lo Wing-lok, an infectious diseases doctor, said: 'This should make health care workers think about rabies more frequently and ask a few more questions.' He urged people to seek medical treatment promptly if they were bitten by a dog.

Cynthia Tellez, director of the Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers, said she hoped doctors would be more alert to the possibility of the disease.

'They did not learn their lesson in 1999,' she said, referring to the death from rabies of another Filipino domestic helper, Cristina Solano, who died after a succession of private and public hospital doctors failed to diagnose her condition.



Mystery surrounds source of rabies