Epidemiological Pattern and Trend of Animal Exposures Reported to a Tertiary Care Hospital in Kerala

Abstract

Introduction: Rabies is a vaccine-preventable zoonotic disease. Globally, dogs account for up to 99% of all human rabies transmissions. The importance of our study is that the knowledge about the epidemiological pattern and the trends in animal exposure cases will help to identify the exact burden of the disease and the need for further actions required to achieve the target of elimination of dog-mediated human rabies.
Methods: A record-based descriptive study was done in the anti-rabies clinic of a tertiary care hospital in Southern Kerala in which all the cases reported to the clinic from January 1, 2019 to December 31,2024 were included.
Results: A total of 69,801 animal exposure cases were reported in the anti-rabies clinic from January 2019 to December 2024 with an average/ mean of 11,634 (standard deviation: 4679) animal exposure cases per year. The majority of cases had exposure to dogs (58.4%) among which domestic dog exposure was most common (64%). There was an increase in cases from 2019 to 2024 and in 2020; the number of cases was on the lesser side following the COVID-19 pandemic. While analyzing the trend, the maximum number of cases were reported
during the months of April–May and August–December.
Conclusion: As there is ample evidence that the number of animal exposure cases is on the rise, it is high time that we intervene for the prevention and control of rabies.

How to cite this article:
Kanchana B M, Krishnan J, Ushakumari A. Epidemiological Pattern and Trend of Animal Exposures Reported to a Tertiary Care Hospital in Kerala. APCRI J. 2024; 26(2): 10-13.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/0973.5038.202409