Temporal analysis of animal bite incidents in a tertiary care hospital in Western Maharashtra

Abstract

Background: Rabies is a fatal disease with no cure but 100% preventable and effective vaccines are available. Time trends in epidemiological factors related to exposure to biting animal, management & adherence to vaccination have poorly studied. Hence, we have undertaken this study to analyze the time trends in epidemiological factors associated with animal bite cases over the period of eight years. Methods: Present study was cross sectional in nature conducted in patients presenting to ARV clinic. Results: Of the various age group classes, majority (47.46%) of the cases were from 15-44 years followed by 19.06% from 6-14 years age group. Majority (61.29%) of the cases were males. maximum (81.43%) cases were from category 2 of WHO classification of animal bite exposure. 89.42% cases type of animal bite exposure was dog. Male gender, age group of 15-44 years, category 3 exposures & cases presenting within 24 hours had shown significantly increasing trend with time (p<0.001). Conclusion: There was increasing trend of category 3 exposures but fortunately simultaneously increasing trend in cases presenting within 24 hours. Mortality due to rabies was low (0.07%) & has shown declining trend.

Keywords

• rabies
• time trends
• epidemiology
• mortality
• animal bite
• dog bite
• tertiary institution