Siliguri, Aug. 19: Twenty-three people, including 10 children, who had come in contact with a boy suspected to have died of hydrophobia a month ago, were administered the first of three doses of the anti-rabies vaccine today.

The health department was spurred into action after Jalpaiguri Welfare Organisation, an NGO, started an agitation in front of Jalpaiguri District Hospital demanding that the injections be given.

Hospital superintendent S.C. Bhowmik had at first brushed aside the demand saying he doubted if the vaccines would work for these people, who came in contact with the boy suspected to have been infected with the rabies virus, after a month. “Usually, the first dose should be taken at the earliest and these people show none of the symptoms. ”

Later, however, he admitted that the symptoms of the disease may be visible even after six months or a year.

Abhijit Roy, a general physician in Siliguri, however, said it was always better to be late than never. “Given that none of these people have any symptoms, maybe they have not been infected. But why should we take a risk? It is better to be late than never because once infected, death is almost certain, ” he said.

On July 24, Ranjan Chakraborty, a 10-year-old boy from Bakali of Mainaguri, died of suspected rabies at his uncle’s house in Sukantanagar Colony in Jalpaiguri. The boy’s parents and relatives had alleged that repeated visits to the Jalpaiguri district hospital for the ARV had proved futile and that the boy died of rabies.

Usually, three doses are given to those who come in contact with a rabies patient and five for those who have been bitten by an infected animal.

“After the boy’s death, some of these people had been to the hospital seeking ARV doses as prevention,” Sanjoy Chakraborty, the JWO secretary, said. “They were turned away. We confined the superintendent today in protest and also demanded that a probe be conducted to find out if there was actually no stock of ARV on the dates the boy’s parents approached the hospital.”