Overview

• The 17-year-old died on August 24 at IMSS Hospital General de Zona No. 1 following a laboratory-confirmed rabies infection.
• She was bitten by a skunk on June 22 and did not receive post-exposure prophylaxis after the incident.
• Rabies was first suspected during care in Durango, confirmed by the national reference lab InDRE, and the patient later died from multiorgan failure.
• Health officials established an epidemiological cordon, are identifying and vaccinating close contacts, and began animal vaccination and wildlife surveillance in affected communities.
• The case, the state’s first in nearly four decades, highlights ongoing wildlife transmission risk despite Mexico’s elimination of dog-mediated human rabies in 2019, and it has been notified to PAHO for monitoring.