Long term trends and spatial distribution of animal bite injuries and deaths due to human rabies infection in Uganda, 2001-2015.

BACKGROUND:In the absence of accurate data on trends and the burden of human rabies infection in developing countries, animal bite injuries provide useful information to bridge that gap. Rabies is one of the most deadly infectious diseases, with a case fatality rate approaching 100%. Despite availability of effective prevention and control strategies, rabies still kills 50,000 to 60,000 people worldwide annually, the majority of whom are in the developing world. We describe trends and geographical distribution of animal bite injuries (a proxy of potential exposure to rabies) and deaths due to suspected human rabies in Uganda from 2001 to 2015. METHODS:We used 2001-2015 surveillance data on suspected animal bite injuries, collected from health facilities in Uganda. To describe annual trends, line graphs were used and linear regression tested significance of observed trends at P