Animal bites: the current management guidelines

Abstract

Rabies is a major public health problem in India. It is mainly transmitted by stray dogs, which form an overwhelming population in the country. Dogs are responsible for upto 95% of animal bites requiring antirabies treatment. In view of the exceptionally high fatality rate of human rabies, the prevention of infection after exposure is of utmost importance. With the availability of safe and effective tissue culture vaccines prevention of this dreaded disease is virtually assured by immediate and appropriate post exposure treatment. This is a three pronged approach including proper wound management, judicious use of antirabies serum and modern tissue culture vaccines. In India, Neural Tissue Vaccine is still used for post exposure treatment in public sector, though effective, this vaccine has serious side effects. The production and use of tissue culture vaccine should be encouraged with the aim to phase out neural tissue vaccine. WHO recommends use of intradermal route of inoculation of Tissue Culture Vaccine which makes the treatment very economical. However, this route as yet, is not approved by Drug Controller, Government of India (DCGI). There are no uniform guidelines for management of animal bite cases in India. In this article an attempt is made to discuss various aspects of animal bite management.