Entrepreneur in rabies scare (From This Is Wiltshire)

Entrepreneur in rabies scare

5:40pm Tuesday 21st February 2012 in Latest News

A SWINDON entrepreneur has begun a course of anti-rabies medication after being bitten by a dog in Afghanistan.

James Brett, founder of Old Town-based Plant for Peace, was on a visit to Kabul at the beginning of the month when the rabies scare began.

James, who is recovering at home in Eldene, said: “I got bitten by a dog in the street outside a factory I was visiting.

“There are a few dogs that hang about in the street outside this factory I was going to look at, and they weren’t that friendly.

“I went the next day and again they still weren’t that friendly, but I have some experience with dogs and thought I’d deal with it. The dog that bit was the main one. It went for me and it managed to bite me on the hand, but I was sort of forceful and didn’t back down.”

Finishing his business in Afghanistan, James returned to the UK. He was on the motorway, heading for a meeting in London when he began to feel ill and later had what he describes as a seizure.

An ambulance trip to hospital followed, and he began a month’s course of precautionary injections.

Although the illness is almost always fatal, precautionary treatment prevents it from developing after a bite. Also, it is not known whether the dog had rabies.