Abstract

Background: Rabies is 100% fatal, 100% vaccine preventable disease, yet continues to kill. There are no global estimates of dog bite incidence; however, studies suggest that dog bites account for tens of millions of injuries annually. Tens of thousands of people die from rabies each year; one person dies every 10 min, with the greatest burden in Asia and Africa. Rabies is the 10th biggest cause of death due to infectious diseases worldwide, and it causes more than 59,000 fatalities per year worldwide.
Objective: To determine the profile of animal bite cases attending the Anti-rabies Clinic of Hamidia Hospital, Bhopal.
Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study carried out at Anti-rabies Clinic of Hamidia Hospital, Bhopal. The study was carried out by interviewing 1200 cases of animal bite for a period of 1 year. Result: A total of 1200 cases of animal bites were interviewed and examined in the present study. Most commonly (34.58%) affected age group was <15 years. Males were more (74.5%) affected as compared to females. Dogs were the main (92%) biting animals and protection of pet dogs (29.22%) with vaccination was low (24.4%). Lower limbs were the site of bite in 68.6%. 71.5% cases were of category III as per the WHO classification.
Conclusions: High number of injuries due to dogs who are freely roaming, indicating the need of legislative measure which includes an effort to remove stray dogs and encourage owners to properly vaccinate their dogs, should be implemented.