Noting that animal bites are significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, a recent data by the World Health Organisation has suggested that in India monkeys bites is the most common source of animal bite injuries after dog bites.
While, there are no global estimates of dog-bite incidence, studies suggest that dog-bites account for tens of millions of injuries annually. For the low and middle-income countries, studies reveal that dogs account for 76–94 per cent of animal-bite injuries.
Dog-bite fatality rates are higher in low and middle-income countries than in high-income countries as rabies is a problem in many of these countries.
“An estimated 55,000 people die annually from rabies, and bites from rabid dogs account for the vast majority of these deaths,” said the WHO.
Also, “In the United States of America for example, approximately 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs every year. Of these, nearly 8,85,000 seek medical care; 30,000 have reconstructive procedures; 3–18 per cent develop infections and between 10 and 20 fatalities occur. Other high-income countries such as Australia, Canada and France have comparable incidence and fatality rates,” it added.
Significantly, monkey-bites account for 2–21 per cent of animal-bite injuries worldwide and up to five million people are bitten by snakes. Of these, poisonous (envenoming) snakes cause considerable morbidity and mortality. According to the health agency there are an estimated 2.4 million envenomations (poisonings from snake-bites) and 94,000–1,25,000 deaths.
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