A Study on Clinico-Social Profile of Animal Bite Cases Attending an Anti-Rabies Clinic of a Tertiary Care Hospital, Odisha - A Cross Sectional Study

Background: Human rabies continues to be endemic in India and according to a recent estimate 20,000 people die of this disease every year. However at the same time, it is also 100% preventable through timely and proper post exposure prophylaxis. Aims and Objectives: The present study was undertaken to assess the socio-clinical profiles of animal bite cases attending the anti-rabies clinic of a tertiary care hospital of Odisha, to find out the association of socio-clinical factors with Category III bite cases and to study the first aid practices of such patients. Methodology: A hospital based cross section study was conducted at an anti-rabies clinic of S.C.B. Medical College & Hospital, Odisha between the months of January and March 2018. New animal bite cases that gave the consent to participate were included in the study. 20% of the new eligible cases i.e., 1200 were taken by using consecutive sampling of 15 patients per day. A pretested and predesigned questionnaire was used to collect the data. Analysis was done in SPSS. Results: In this study Males (70%). are predominantly affected. About 26% cases were children <15 yrs. Dog bite was seen in 80% cases. Lower limb (60%) was the most commonly the bitten site. A majority had category III (76%) exposure. About 75% bites were unprovoked bites. Most of the cases (55%) came from the rural area. 43% cases applied bitter gourd and turmeric paste on their wounds. Conclusion: From this study, we observed that males have a higher incidence of animal bite than females and most of the cases were >15 years age. The most common animal biting people is a dog. A majority had category III exposure.