Epidemiology of cat bites to people in Uruguay: Effects of the age and sex of the victim, season of the year, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Cat bites to people are an important public health problem. However, very little information exists on the epidemiology of people bitten by cats at the level of an entire country in Latin America. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced people's lives and their relationships with pets, which could potentially affect the frequency of people bitten by cats.

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of people bitten by cats in Uruguay (2010 to 2020) according to the sex and age of the victim, season of the year, and to compare the prevalence in the pandemic year (2020) with that of the pre-pandemic years (2010-2019).

Methods: Cross-sectional study. Cat-bite notifications for the 2010-2020 period were analyzed using data from the Uruguayan Ministry of Public Health (Uruguay).

Results: The annual cat-bite rate for the 2010-2020 period was 2.1 per 100,000 people. The frequency of cat bites varied with the victim´s sex (p < 0.0001), being greater in females (n = 506, 66.5%) than in males (n = 255, 33.5%). The age at being bitten by cats varied with the sex of the victim, with males being bitten at an earlier age than females (p < 0.0001). Among the age categories of 30-74 years, females were bitten more than males (p < 0.05). Overall, cat bites were much less frequent in the oldest age categories (over 75 years old, p < 0.05). The percentage of cat bites tended to change with the season of the year (p = 0.08), with most bites occurring in spring and summer. The frequency of cat-bite injuries was similar between 2020 and the pre-COVID-19 pandemic years.

Conclusion: In Uruguay, cat bite incidents were affected by the victim's sex (more in females) and age, as well as by the season. During the initial year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of cat bites was no different from those in earlier years.