Animal Bites Epidemiology in Shahroud City

Introduction: Rabies is an infectious central nervous system disease that infects all mammals and man. This study aimed at investigating the epidemiology of animal bites in Shahroud. Methods: In this deh1ive study all the data related to animal bite cases in shahroud in 2008-2009 were collected based on the data registration notebooks. Results: A total of 588 cases of animal bite were reported in 2008-2009 the majority of whom (82.1%) were male. Of this total 35.7% were urban and 64.3% were rural. Just 2 of the cases were foreigners. The incidence rate of animal bite in the city was 159 (27%) compared to 429 cases (73%) in villages. Dogs and cats accounted for about 79.1% and 12.6% of the cases respectively. 12 cases were also wolf fox and Reynard bites. All cases have completed vaccination. In 82.3% of animal bites the biter was alive after 10 days and in 2% biters were dead and in 15.6% the biter reported invisible after 10 days. The incidence rate of animal bites in Shahroud was 246 in one hundred thousand. Conclusions: Animal bites are one of the most important problems of public health. Educational activities along with the promotion of out- organizing cooperation can play a significant role in controlling this problem