Epidemiology of dog bites in southern district of Babylon Province/ Iraq

Background and Objective: Animal-bite injuries especially dog bites are indicators for assessing the risk of rabies virus transmission and need for rabies post exposure prophylaxis to prevent death. Dog bites account for tens of millions of injuries annually; the highest risk is among children. The risk of injury to the head and neck is greater in children than in adults, adding to increased severity, necessity for medical treatment and death rates. The objective was to describe the epidemiological features of dog bites in southern district in Babylon Province in Iraq.Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study, data collected from monthly reports of CDC section in public health department, demographic data were collected together with other information related to dog bite injuries in Al- Showmaly district in ۲۰۲۰.Results: A total of ۳۶۶ person exposed to dog bites, ۹۰% of victims were resident in rural areas, ۷۴% were males, and ۶۶% of them within age group of ۱-۱۵ years. The most common bite's site was the lower limbs followed by upper limbs with a proportion of ۶۵% and ۲۷% respectively. In addition, ۷% of them exposed to bite in head and trunk. All exposed individuals were vaccinated with post-exposure prophylaxis of the first dose of rabies vaccine, the proportions for second, third, fourth and fifth doses were declined remarkably as following ۹۳%, ۷۴%, ۳۸% and ۳% respectively.Conclusion: Dog bite occurrence is a public health problem with daily incident cases overtime in southern district of Babylon Governorate, most of victims were children and the most common site of dog bites were at lower limbs. Health promotion campaigns involve education on dog behaviour and bites prevention for both children and adults is an important issue; availability and extension of anti-rabies vaccination can reduce both the incidence of human rabies and the financial burden of treating dog bites.

Keywords:

Dog , bite , injuries , epidemiology , Babylon , Iraq