Epidemiological study of patients attending anti-rabies vaccination clinic of tertiary care hospital of Southern Maharashtra, India

Animal Bite Patterns and Implementation of Rabies Prevention and Control Program in Animal Bite Treatment Center

“…Also, adults are more adventurous and risk takers making them more prone to bite of stray animals. These findings are congruent with the cases in Aklan, Davao and Cebu City, Philippines and India which clinched that nearly half of the cases occurred in persons of economically productive age group [8,20,21]. However, deaths due to human rabies contributes to almost one third are among children less than 15 years old, an almost half of rabies exposure are among schoolchildren in which cases are usually higher in summer where children spend more time playing outdoors [22].…”

“…However, deaths due to human rabies contributes to almost one third are among children less than 15 years old, an almost half of rabies exposure are among schoolchildren in which cases are usually higher in summer where children spend more time playing outdoors [22]. In terms of bite classification, the findings are congruent with the results of the studies that majority (71.79%) of the cases were category II which includes the following: nibbling of uncovered skin, minor scratches or abrasions without bleeding [8,11,23]. Likewise, Category II rabies exposure involves bites sustained from animals which are thought to have rabies such as dogs, cats, monkeys, swine, rabbits, cattle and goats, necessitating administration of anti-rabies vaccination and local treatment of wound [24].…”

“…This explains why animal bite is increased during July and August which are rainy months and season of thunderstorms that makes dogs and cats more anxious or freak out, thus, they bite to protect themselves [6]. Furthermore, findings show that female (51.54%) are more likely to sustain animal bite [7] which refute the studies conducted in India, Iran and other countries claiming that males are the more likely to be afflicted by dog bite [8][9][10][11]. This can be attributed to the fact that dogs are domesticated and taken cared of mostly by women, since they are more likely the ones who stay at home.…”