SINGARAJA

A 13-year-old girl who died of rabies in Buleleng General Hospital last week got the fatal disease from a cat bite in her classroom at her Singaraja junior high school, it has been confirmed.

She was the 46th officially listed rabies fatality in Bali in the outbreak of the disease that began in 2008 and the first known victim of a rabid cat.

Rabies can be carried by any warm-blooded mammal but almost all animal to human transmission of the disease is caused by dog bites.

The girl, from Panji on the south-western outskirts of Singaraja, was buried at Sukasada cemetery on Sunday.

Her father said: “I hope what happened to my child is a lesson for other people, including the government.”