Epidemiological Pattern and Trend Analysis of Animal Bite Cases of Anti-Rabies Clinic of Tertiary Care Hospital of Delhi

BACKGROUND: Animal bites to humans are a public health problem. Rabies is caused by rhabdovirus which is present in the saliva of rabid animals like dogs, cats, monkeys, and wild animals like fox and jackals. OBJECTIVE: To find the epidemiological pattern and trend analysis of animal bite cases registered in Anti-rabies clinic of tertiary care hospital of Delhi. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was planned in Anti-rabies clinic of Hindu Rao Hospital, Delhi, and data from January 2010 to December 2018 was taken. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 21.0. RESULTS: After interpretation of data from 2010 to 2018, it was found that maximum number of animal bite cases belonged to category 3 (91.0%) and majority (93.6%) were due to dog bite. On analysis of year and season wise trend, it was found that the frequency of cases showed a rising trend from the year 2010, with highest number of cases in the year 2014, while animal bite cases were maximum with arrival of spring season (month of April). CONCLUSION: This study concludes that animal bite cases are rising over the years and dog bites are most common animal bite cases in Delhi. Most of the animal bite cases occurred during spring season followed by autumn season of the year. So, there is dire need of strengthening the preventive measures for controlling animal bites in the study area.