madurai a 20yearold youth from madurai infected with rabies virus transmitted from his pet dog died in a private cell meant for rabies victims at government rajaji hospital grh on friday helpless his relatives friends and doctors at grh watched the youth die doctors say a rabies patient cannot be saved preventive medicine alone is available and death is sure if infected with rabies virus they say in 2013 eight people admitted to grh with rabies infection died in the private cell the victim ragunath had completed class 12 and was working as an earthmover operator he was bitten by a puppy while he staying at his grandfathers house in palamedu a month ago ragunath son of karuppusamy a farmer did not take it seriously and did not even tell his family members that the puppy had bit him doctors from the grh said their enquiry revealed that the puppy died recently due to rabies ragunath developed health complications three days ago and was admitted in a private medical college hospital in madurai he was shifted to grh on friday when the doctors learnt that he was infected by rabies grh doctors say on an average 10 to 12 rabies patients are admitted to the hospital every year and they all die within 24 hours of admission doctors say people who get bitten by a dog must take vaccination irrespective of whether the dog was a stray or a pet if three injections are administered in the first month the person will be rabies free in case of a pet dog it should also be vaccinated they say ironically when doctors say there is no treatment for rabies victims who have reached a terminal stage a professor at madurai kamaraj university had claimed that she has invented a cure the ethical clearance committee at grh needs to clear her medicine t anitha sironmani head and chairperson of department of genetic engineering mku obtained permission from tamil nadu government to apply her nanotechnology medicine on rabies patients a while ago she was allowed to test the medicine with the permission of the patient and after clearance from the ethical clearance committee at grh i approached the ethical clearance committee several times they would allow the victims to die but would not let me try out the medicine i have tested my technology on a rabiesinfected cow and it worked sironmani told toi dr n mohan dean grh and madurai medical college said the independent ethical clearance committee consists of two retired professors senior doctors and a legal expert with me as coordinator there are certain procedures to be followed if she fulfils the requirements she would be allowed to do the experiment on patients he said