Shagufta Zareen, Waqas Ahmad, Muhammad Younus, Syed Muhammad Mursalin, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Ahsan Naeem, Muhammad Kamran.
Analysis of Reported Dog Bite Data in Government Hospitals of Various Districts in Punjab, Pakistan.
Ann King Edward Med Uni Jan ;29(1):64-8.

Background: Rabies is a neglected and underestimated national public health issue in Pakistan. Free roaming dogs are the principal reservoir and also potentially cause thousands of dog bite injuries in different age groups of people. Objectives: The present study was designed to evaluate the burden and frequency distribution of total dog bite injuries in Punjab. The comparison of total dog bite injuries between 2019 and 2020 were made to understand whether there is significant difference in total number of dog bite injuries in 2019 and 2020. Methods: Total dog bite data from public sector hospitals of Punjab province were collected for the time period between January 2019 to December 2020 with the help of District Health Information System (DHIS) which is a comprehensively designed digital program. Descriptive measures and the graphical representation were used to describe and interpret the said data. A non-parametric test (Mann-Whitney test) was used to compare the median number of dog bite injuries in 2019 to 2020. Results: Results show that more than 0.2 million number of dog bite injuries have been recorded in 2019 and 2020. The medium number of the dog bite injuries in 2019 and 2020 were statistically significant, having p value <0.05 using Mann-Whitney test. Furthermore, the median number of dog bite reported in Primary and Secondary Health Care Departments (PSHCDs) and Teaching Hospitals (THs) were not statistically significant in 2019 and 2020. Conclusion: Based on the analysis of dog bite injuries in government hospitals, the number of dog bite injuries are perhaps increasing in the country due to lack of understandings regarding responsible dog ownership and interactive behavior of free-roaming dogs towards humans. Moreover, contact tracing of dog bite cases are also not performed routinely.

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