Abstract

Background: Rabies is a highly fatal disease caused by Lyssavirus type 1 belonging to the Rhabdoviridae family. It’s a disease of warm blooded animals. It’s transmitted to humans and other animals through the saliva of infected animals. Controlling the animal bites is of public health importance as they are responsible for huge loss of lives worldwide and in India also.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to study the epidemiological characteristics of animal bite cases and to find out the practices after animal bite in patients attending the anti-rabies clinic of SMHS hospital Government Medical College, Srinagar.

Methodology: The study was carried out for a period of one month from 9^th June 2017 till 8^th July 2017. Information was obtained by conducting a semi-structured interview of the participants after obtaining informed consent from the animal bite victims.

Results: Of 145 patients that were interviewed, 76% were male, 22% were up to 10 years of age and 80% were from urban areas. In about 46% of cases the timing of bite was between 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. 78% were category III bites and in 63.4% cases lower limb was the site of bite and dogs were responsible for 81 % of the bites. 47% victims did not wash the wound before reaching the anti-rabies clinic.

Conclusion: Rabies is a fatal disease and dog bites are mostly responsible for this disease. Most often small children are involved. Parents should take care of their children and should make sure that they play in safe areas. A lot of people are still unaware about the importance of wound care and do not pay attention to it. There’s a need to create awareness amongst the people regarding wound care.