Epidemiological Profile of Animal bite cases  A Hospital based cross sectional study in Western Odisha.

Giri Mamata Rani; Sahoo Arun Kumar

Volume : IV, Issue : XI, November - 2015

Epidemiological Profile of Animal bite cases A Hospital based cross sectional study in Western Odisha.

Giri Mamata Rani, Sahoo Arun Kumar

Abstract :

Background: Rabies is an acute highly fatal communicable disease. Most of the death occurs due to lack of awareness about the urgency of local wound treatment & vaccination of the animal bites cases. Objectives: 1.To study the epidemiological profile of animal bite cases. 2. To know the knowledge & practice about local wound treatment. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at ARV Clinic of VSS Medical College & Hospital, Burla from Sept. to Nov. 2014. The animal bite cases attending the ARV Clinic during study period were included as study subjects. Data was collected in pre–designed pre–tested questionnaires. It was analyzed with MS Excel. Results: Out of 160 study subject 67% were dog bite cases. 30% cases were in age group 14–30 years. 67% were male & 75% belonged to rural area. 60% of all dog bites reported were due to stray dogs. Lower limb was the mostly bitten site comprising 42.5%. 60% were Cat–III exposure. It was known to all the study subjects that animal bite causes rabies & injections were available to prevent it in free of cost. 92% had already taken first aid washing with soap & water. Conclusion: The awareness regarding animal bite case management was quite high among the study subjects, still a less number of subjects were not practiced the local wound treatment, which is a matter of concern. There is a need for imparting IEC in this regard.