Epidemiological study on animal bite cases and its related injury in Quchan district in 2013

The incidence rate of animal bite in Quchan city is much higher than national and provincial average. This project was done to study the epidemiologic distribution of animal bite cases in Quchan city. In this cross sectional study, all animal bite cases of Quchan city in 1392 were studied. Then collected data was entered SPSS17 software and were analyzed by few tests such as t-test, chi-square, and logistic regression. Most cases were 21-30 years old and mean of age was 32.2±19.8 years. 31.3% were female and 68.7% were male. The risk of severe injury by stray animals was 2.5 times higher than pets and by dogs was 12.6 times higher than cats (P<0.05). Severity of injury in women were greater than men and women were about 10 years older than men in average (P<0.05). 16.3% of cases were city residents and 83.7% of them were rural residents. Highest number of cases of animal bite injuries occurred in June (11.2%) and the lowest in January (5.7%). The culprit animals in most case of bite injuries were dogs (86.7%) followed by cats (9.5%). Invasive animals in 95.2% cases were pets and domesticated and in 41.3% of them attacked their owners. 36.9% of cases were injured when they passed by the animal and 11.1% of them were injured when they entered the animal owner’s house. Most animal attacks occurred at 12-18 o’clock. Because incidence rate of animal bites in Quchan city is high, it is essential that provide an appropriate intervention programs to prevent and reduce the incidence of animal bites, especially in the rural young men and students and with emphasis on immunization the pets.