Some epidemiological features of human rabies referred to the health public centers of Sari, Iran, during 2012-2017

Rabies is one of the most endemic zoonotic diseases which is very important due to its ability to be transmitted from animals to the mammals. The infected animal can transmit the disease to human beings or other animals through biting.  This is a retrospective study intended to survey the document of 6560 animal bites referred to the health center of Sari city during 5 years from 2012 to 2017, for factors such as age, sex, occupation, place of residence of selected individuals, type of the biting animal, time of bite and type of bitten organ were studied. Collected data was analyzed by Excel 2010 and SPSS 22 software, using descriptive and inferential statistics. P-value was considered < 0.05 for statistical significant. From a total of 6560 cases of animal bites, an average of 1093±87/52 animal bites happened annually in study area. Dogs, with a rate of 81.1%, were the most biting animals. Men with a rate of 77%, the age group of 20 to 29 with the average of 281.1 bites per year, self-employed individuals with 319.3 bites per year were the most referred cases. Rural areas with 64.3%, summer with 28.4% and the month of June with an average of 111.5 bites per year had the highest incidence of bites. Hands and feet were the most bitten body parts with 50.4% and 42.9% of bites, respectively. Special attention should be paid to eliminating the reservoirs of the disease, as well as increasing the awareness of the general population about the disease and its types of transmission.