Dubai: Syrian actress and Miss Syria 2015 Sarah Nakhle has been admitted to hospital after being bitten by a stray dog on the streets of the Egyptian capital Cairo, local media reported.
Nakhle is said to have had her leg injured because of the dog bite and was admitted to hospital and given a rabies vaccine, which must be administered within 24 hours of the bite to prevent the disease.
In a Facebook post, the Syrian actress said that she was bitten by a stray dog and had to go to a private hospital to get treated. However, the hospital told her that they don’t have rabies vaccine and that she must go to a public hospital.
“I went to Zayed Specialist Hospital and was given the rabies vaccine. Thank you Egypt. If I was in another country, I may have been in a frenzy, sitting next to dogs barking and eating dry food,” Miss Syria said.
Nakhleh moved to Egypt in 2013 and also worked as a TV presenter. She then took part in the Miss Syria competition and Miss Arab World competitions, and won the Miss Syria title in 2015 and was the runner-up for Miss Arab 2015.
An overpopulated mega-city of more than 20 million people, Cairo is already plagued by monster traffic jams, widespread waste problems and rampant pollution. Packs of stray dogs are only adding to the city’s challenges.
Complaints about dog attacks, exposure to rabies and in some cases even deaths over the years have triggered calls for the animals to be brought under control.
Commonly referred to as “baladi dogs”, strays are widely viewed as unsanitary and dirty. They are typically seen running around the streets and scavenging garbage for food.
According to the agriculture ministry, there were around 400,000 cases of dog bites in 2017, up from 300,000 in 2014.
There are no official data on the numbers of stray dogs, but activists say they are running loose in their millions.
In 2017, authorities killed more than 17,000 stray dogs following multiple complaints of dog “disturbances” and “biting” in Beni Sueif, south of Cairo, according to an August report by the governorate’s veterinary directorate.
