Animal Bites Epidemiology in Shahroud City

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. 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. 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. 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.