Epidemiological characterization of bites: A retrospective study of dog bites to humans in Chile during 2009

Abstract

Accidents involving dog bites to humans have high incidence worldwide. According to studies conducted in different countries, dogs are responsible for 60%-95% of all bites. This type of incident is a growing public health issue in Chile and an important economic burden for health systems. The problems that arise from bites include physical injuries, psychological trauma, and zoonosis. The objective of the present study was to characterize epidemiologically all bite incidents in Chile that were recorded in 11 public emergency services and analyze the information provided in health care forms from 5195 bites recorded in six regions of Chile. Our results show that dogs were responsible for 91.6% of bite incidents. The victim knew the offending dog in most cases (63.7%). The highest percentage of people bitten was between ages 5 and 9 years, with a rate of 125 bites per 100,000 inhabitants (P <= 0.05). 86.6% of the cases in the study were single bites. Although the national health system has records of bite-related incidents, few studies provide relevant information on animal bites. This is a public health issue and we should know the magnitude of the problem, the species responsible for the bite, and the context in which accidents occur. The information obtained from the analyses performed in this study can contribute to develop prevention and control programs for bites, both in Chile and in other countries with similar sociocultural characteristics. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Accidents involving dog bites to humans have high incidence worldwide. According to studies conducted in different countries, dogs are responsible for 60%-95% of all bites. This type of incident is a growing public health issue in Chile and an important economic burden for health systems. The problems that arise from bites include physical injuries, psychological trauma, and zoonosis. The objective of the present study was to characterize epidemiologically all bite incidents in Chile that were recorded in 11 public emergency services and analyze the information provided in health care forms from 5195 bites recorded in six regions of Chile. Our results show that dogs were responsible for 91.6% of bite incidents. The victim knew the offending dog in most cases (63.7%). The highest percentage of people bitten was between ages 5 and 9 years, with a rate of 125 bites per 100,000 inhabitants (P <= 0.05). 86.6% of the cases in the study were single bites. Although the national health system has records of bite-related incidents, few studies provide relevant information on animal bites. This is a public health issue and we should know the magnitude of the problem, the species responsible for the bite, and the context in which accidents occur. The information obtained from the analyses performed in this study can contribute to develop prevention and control programs for bites, both in Chile and in other countries with similar sociocultural characteristics. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.