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A FATHER in Jiangsu Province died from rabies after refusing to take a vaccine over cost concerns about a month after he sucked blood from a dog bite wound on his son’s leg in an attempt at emergency treatment, Yangzi Evening News reported today.

The victim’s son was taken to the hospital and received rabies vaccine shots after his father, a 41-year-old man surnamed Jiang, tried to remove any infection he may have been exposed to by sucking blood from the bite. The boy was bitten by a stray dog.

The father, a villager of Sitong County, was worried about the cost and didn’t get the same shots. Fellow villagers said he also thought it unlikely that people would be infected by the rabies virus through the mouth and he thought taking shots too troublesome.

For each treatment, rabies shots could cost about several hundred yuan.

Jiang’s son, about 20, was bitten by a small stray dog on August 29 while he was sweeping the grounds in front of their house. Jiang was so anxious about his son’s injury that he squatted down immediately and started to suck the blood from his left leg and spit it onto the ground, which some people do to try to treat bites from venomous snakes.

Jiang developed strong rabies symptoms on Monday and died hours after he was rushed to a hospital.

Doctors reminded people not to suck out blood after being bitten by dogs, but to clean wounds with soapy water and get timely medical help.