CAJ | 학술논문

Objective:To investigate the prevalence rate and epidemiological aspects of animal bite in AhvazCounty(western part),KhuzestanProvince,SouthwesternIran during the2nd half2003-2007.Methods:In this descriptive cross-sectional investigation a questionnaire was completed for each victim.The questionnaire included questions like, occupation, gender, age group, attacker animal, vaccination type(complete or non-complete), bite place on the body, type of dog bite(stray or domestic dog), residential area(urban or rural).Data analysis was done by SPSS software using descriptive statistics.Results:The total number of4186 cases had been found.The highest number of bitten persons were in2007(1079 cases) and2005(1032 cases). The maximum prevalence rate belonged to2005(2.04/1000 population).Also,Most of the victims were males(80%).Eighty percent of the bites were from urban regions.The majority of cases were related to10-19 years age group(32.8%).The highest frequencies of bites were students(28.9%). Upper extremities were the most common bite place(61.4%).About91.3% of cases were injured by dogs.Furthermore, around83.7% of animal bites treated by incomplete rabies prophylaxis regimen.No cases of human rabies were observed in our study.Conclusions:The dogs were the major attacker animal, affecting mostly the age group10-19 years old and men.Therefore, we should pay more attention about controlling this problem.