The Journal of

  Background: Rabies is one of the fatal diseases in human and other mammals. With regard to lack of full control of the disease in wild and domesticated animals, There is stillt the possibility of incidence of the disease in our country. The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiology and causes of delays in getting treatment for rabies and animal bites in the city of Tabas during 2005-2010.

  Method: The present research is a descriptive cross-sectional study in which, the existing information for 480 bitten subjects referring to Tabas rabies units during 2005-2010 was used. Patient-related factors, factors related to location, factor related to the time of being bitten, the wound status as well as bite status were studied. The descriptive statistics, including descriptive indicator was used to analyze the data, and the logistic regression analysis was used to measure the effect of considered variables on delay in receiving preventive treatment of rabies. The analysis was performed using SPSS version 18.

  Result : Out of 480 bitten persons, 413 individuals (86%) were male and others 67 (14%) were female. Totally 54.6% (262 cases) of animal-bite incidents were in the city and 45.4% (218) had experienced it in the rural areas. The cases were mostly related to dog bites (63.1%) and cat bites (27.3%) respectively. Most bites had occured for 107 students (22.3%) and 98 (20.4%) for others. Mean and standard deviation of delay time in receiving the anti-rabies vaccines was 6.5±1.5 hours. The most offective factors in delaying or notdelaying were age (OR = 0.98, CI: 0.74-0.99), time of accident (OR = 1.06, 1.01-1.12), bite of the lower extremities (OR = 5.31, CI: 3.8-6.33), history of vaccination (OR = 0.39, CI: 0.21-0.68), having primary care recommended for the injury (OR = 6.75, CI: 4.4-8.8) and animal type (OR = 4.17, CI: 3.34-6.5). 

  Conclusion: Regarding the relatively high incidence of animal bites in this county, the necessity of controlling animals such as dogs and cats through training vulnerable individuals such as adolescents as well as animal owners and intersectional coordination to eliminate the straying animals should be more considered. Because of the imposed cost sustained by health system care for any bite, the preventive measure should be considered as priority.