A 10-year-old boy hospitalized for rabies after being bitten by dogs died on Wednesday, doctors announced. The boy, identified as M.E., was transferred to a hospital in the capital Ankara on Oct. 21, weeks after an attack by dogs. The incident has renewed a debate on stray dogs in the country where several were killed in recent months while fleeing feral dogs.

"We are saddened to announce the passing of a boy, of an illness preventable by a vaccine," professor Ali Bülent Cengiz from Hacettepe University Ihsan Doğramacı Children’s Hospital where the boy was in intensive care, said in a statement. M.E. was one of two boys bitten by dogs in a village in the eastern province of Bitlis while the other boy was not diagnosed with rabies and discharged from hospital last week. M.E.’s family has told reporters earlier that the boy hid the fact that he was bitten by dogs, due to his phobia of getting vaccinated and they would take him to hospital if they were aware of the incident.

Experts say about 200,000 people are vaccinated against rabies every year, though cases are rare.

Stray dogs are viewed as a safety problem for some though animal lovers say it is not animals but rather the practices for their control that is the real problem.