Abstract

Dog-bite injuries are a common problem globally, however little is known about the epidemiology of the injury. The objective of our study was to gather information regarding the spread of dog-bite injuries in tertiary-care facilities in Karachi and relate to epidemiology to the extenuating circumstances that resulted in the victim being attacked. This was a cross-sectional study on dog bite victims of all ages both genders presenting to dog bite unit of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan started from December 2015. The patient demographic information (age, gender, education and area of residence) and dog bite injury event (date and time of injury, location of injury event, dog ownership, anatomical site, circumstances of the event) was recorded. From total 2151 dog bite victim, (n=1834, 85.3%) male are more significantly at risk of being attacked than female which is (n=311, 14.5%). Majority of people who were injured were between the ages of 30–40 is (n=419, 19.5%) and (n=587, 27.3%) victim’s education is none. In addition to this, (n=1475, 68.6%) of the study participants were attacked on the street in which (n=1490, 69.3%) were walking on the way. Nearly all of them (n=2043, 95%) have soft tissues injury. Half (n=1102, 51.2%) victims have got vaccination and antibiotics in which (n=1748, 81.3%) received tetanus and rabies vaccination. This implies that (n=1463, 68%) of free-roaming stray dogs may play a major role in exacerbating the problem. However, (n=1428, 66.4%) participants claimed the animal had not been provoked prior to the incident. Age and gender may correlate to an increased risk of incidence. Furthermore, especially in certain districts of the city, being out in the open and exposed to stray dogs may also put the victims at risk.