Animal Bites: Epidemiological Considerations in the East of Ahvaz County, Southwestern Iran (2011 - 2013)

Background: Animal bite is an emerging public health problem. Annually, in different parts of the world, more than 15 million people are treated for animal bites. Each year,140 cases of animal bites per100,000 population are estimated to occur in Iran, more than 85 of which are dog bites. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology of animal bites during years 2011 and 2013 in the East of Ahvaz county. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study performed on whole cases of animal bite registered at the health center of Eastern Ahvaz, Southwestern Iran. According to the current study, a "bitten person" is bitten by an animal, and refers to the rabies prevention centers due to animal bites and fear of rabies. During a three-year period, through a questionnaire-based study, 2493 bitten individuals were enrolled in the research. In this respect, for all cases, demographic and epidemiological data, such as treatment, biting animals, age, gender, occupation, place of residence, month of the year, season and biting site on the body were recorded. Descriptive statistics, including frequency distribution and percentage were used to analyze the data. The analysis was performed using the SPSS version 18 software. Results: The highest number of bitten individuals were recorded during year 2012. Out of 2493 bitten individuals, 76.6 were male and 23.4 were female. Bites were most frequent among the age group of 21 to 30 years old. Most cases (24.7) were self-employed. in total, 65 of animal-bite incidents were in the city and 35 were in rural areas. The cases were mostly related to dog bites (78.4) and cat bites (17.3), respectively. Moreover, 100 of cases were vaccinated within the first 24 hours, 61.4 had incomplete while 38.6 had complete vaccination. Lower extremities were the most frequent bite site (46.9) followed by upper extremities (41.6), head and neck (5.7), and trunk (5.8). Animal bites were more common during spring (26.7) and autumn (25.2). Maximum number of incidents were reported during the month of April (9.2) and July (9). Conclusions: Dogs were the most common animals causing this problem. Control of stray dog population by animal birth control and domestic animal vaccination is needed. Meanwhile, training people at risk can playan important role in reducing the incidence of animal bites and rabies