Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement that the girl died at 2.16pm today from rabies encephalomyelitis.

“As of today, there are four confirmed cases of rabies in Serian, Sarawak, in which three have passed away.

“In the fourth case, the patient is being treated in the paediatric intensive care unit of the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), and is in critical condition,” he said.

Noor Hisham said no new case had been reported but the Active Case Detection (ACD) programme to detect dog bite cases had been initiated in the rabies-infected area in Serian by the Serian health office together with the Sarawak Health Department.

ACD has been carried out in 96 localities, involving 5,663 houses, and 21,978 residents were interviewed on their dog bite history.

“A total of 225 cases were detected in Serian and treated,” he added.

The other two victims, a brother and sister aged four and six, from Kampung Paon, Sungai Rimu in Serian, died at the SGH on July 4.