An epidemiological characteristics and determinants of human dog bite incidents in Puducherry

Introduction

Rabies is one of the oldest recognized diseases affecting humans and one of the most important zoonotic diseases which is endemic in India. Rabies is primarily a disease of mammals, including dogs, cats, monkeys, wolves, bats, jackals and human beings. The dog has been and still is the main source of rabies in India. The number of cases involving monkey bites has been increasing in the last few years (Kole et al, 2014) [6] . In India, about 15 million people are bitten by animals, mostly dogs, every year, and need post exposure vaccination. Majority of people who die of rabies are people belonging to low socioeconomic status. This study assesses the influence of age, sex, animal species, part of body bitten and vaccination regimen on the human dog bite cases in Puducherry, India.

Materials and Method

Patients presented to different hospitals in Puducherry during the year 2022 January -December) with clinical history of animal bite wounds (dogs, cats & monkeys) were and included in the study. Observations were made regarding the following: 1. Age of the patients (children, teenagers, middle and old age), 2. Sex of the patients 3. Part of body bitten (hands, legs and other parts of the body, 4. Animal species (canine, feline and monkeys), 5. Vaccination regimen, 6. Month in which bite occurred.

Altogether 370 animal bite cases were reported during the period of study. Epidemiological data were collected and it were analysed by 'Z" test and multivariate analysis to assess the distribution and determinants of human dog bite cases.

Results and Discussion

Almost all age group of people were bitten by animals. In that, highest percentage of animal bite was noticed in the middle age group of people (36.49%) followed by old age group (28.65%), children (22.97%) and teenagers (11.89%). In the studies by Bedi et al (2006) [2] and Behera et al (2005) [3] , they have found that more than half of the animal bite victims were in children lesser than 10 years of age. This may be due to the fact that middle age group people are more active in work and they tend to move out more often. Data about the age of patients are shown in the table no. 1. [5] in Bangalore and Behera et al (2005) [3] . Details about the sex wise classification of humans are given in the table no. 2 Based on the body part bitten by the animals, nearly 86.5 per cent were bitten on legs, 13.0 per cent on hands and 0.5 per cent on the other parts of the body. The most common site of bite was legs (86.5%) as it is the most easily approachable part of body for animals. Hands were the next common site of bite (13%). Sampath (2005) [7] , Bedi et al (2006) [2] , Behera et al (2005) [3] and Hanspal et al (2007) [5] also found legs (lower extremities) as the most common site of bite in their studies. Details about body part bitten is given in the table no. 3 Almost three animal species were involved in the human bite cases, like dogs, cats and monkeys. Mostly, 96.22 per cent of the bite cases were from the dogs. In that dog bites 83.99 per cent were by strayed dogs and 16.01 per cent were by owned dogs. Followed by the dogs, cats 3.24 per cent and monkeys 0.54 per cent. This is similar to Study by Bedi et al (2006) [2] and Behera et al (2005) [3] found that 90.7 per cent of animal bites were due to dogs. As results of animal species involved in human bites is shown in the figure no. 2. Highest occurrence of dog bites was noticed in the period of January to March 27.03 per cent, least no of cases were in the period of July to September 22.16 per cent. This finding is in par with the study by Hanspal et al (2007) [5] who reported higher incidence during winter (December, January, February) and similar with the study by Agarwal et al (2004) [1] who found higher incidence in summer (May, June and July) and Singh and Choudhary (2005) [9] . This may be due to the fact that during winter the female dogs are lactating and in fear of hurting their puppies they might be biting the humans. The abnormal behaviour of biting dogs for which they are even killed is most commonly seen from December to May.

Conclusion

This study reveals the distribution and determinants of the animal bite cases among human beings in Puducherry.

Mostly middle aged and old aged people were suffered by dog bite especially by stray dogs on the leg region. The study also underlines the need to educate the people on what they have to do after the dog bite and how to handle the dogs in street as well in home and how to protect themselves from dogs. The issues associated with man days lost and economic loss due to this as well as cost of treatment is a major social concern. As per the theme of Rabies Day, 2025 ("Act now: You, Me, Community") results also underline the need of stray dog control.

References

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