User:Keniett J. Vazquez/ Animal Attack Sandbox

Animal attacks are violent, often fatal attacks caused by animals against humans, one of the most common being bites. Bites are wounds caused as a result of an animal or human attack. These attacks cause of human injuries and fatalities worldwide. According to the 2012 U.S. Pet Ownership & Demographics Sourcebook, 56% of United States citizens owned a pet. In the United States in 1994, approximately 4.7 million people were bitten by dogs. One factor that has notably affected the amount of these statistical numbers has been the increase in the animal population. This has increased the risk of transmission of zoonotic diseases and other bacteria that can affect human health. The frequency of animal attacks varies with geographical location. In the United States, a person is more likely to be killed by a domesticated dog than they are to die from being hit by lightning according to the National Safety Council.

Animal attacks have been identified as a major public health problem. In 1997, it was estimated that up to 2 million animal bites occur each year in the United States. Injuries caused by animal attacks result in thousands of fatalities worldwide every year. "Unprovoked attacks occur when the animal approaches and attacks a person(s) who is the principal attractant, for example, predation on humans..." All causes of death are reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention each year. Medical injury codes are used to identify specific cases. The World Health Organization uses identical coding, though it is unclear whether all countries keep track of fatalities caused by animals. Though animals, excluding some tigers, do not regularly hunt humans, there is concern that these incidents are " bad for many species 'public image'.”

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Epidemiology and injuries[edit][edit]

Animal bites are the most common form of injury from animal attacks. The U.S. estimated annual count of animal bites is 250,000 human bites, 1 to 2 million dog bites, 400,000 cat bites, and 45,000 bites from snakes. Bites from skunks, horses, squirrels, rats, rabbits, pigs, and monkeys may be up to 1 percent of bite injuries. Pet ferrets attacks that were unprovoked have caused serious facial injuries. Non-domesticated animals, though assumed to be more common especially as a cause of rabies infection, make up less than one percent of reported bite wounds. When a person is bitten, it is more likely to occur on the right arm, most likely due to defensive reactions when the victims use her or his dominant arm. The most common place for fatal bites are mostly on the individual's head. Estimates are that three-quarters of bites are located on the arms or legs of humans. Bites to the face of humans constitute only ten percent of the total. Two-thirds of bite injuries in humans are suffered by children aged ten and younger. Bite injuries are often the consequences of an animal attack, including those instances when a human attacks another human. Human bites are the third most frequent type of bite after dog and cat bites. Dog bites are commonplace, with children the most commonly bitten with the face and scalp the most common target.

Infections[edit][edit]

Animal bites carry an increased risk of infection due to their exposure to rabies and different bacteria that animals have in their oral cavity. Microbiological studies are carried out to determine some of these infections, frequently these infections are polymicrobial with different mixtures of aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms. Some of these bacteria (not related to rabies) identified by the remains that are maintained in the bites and by exposure to other variables and change of physical environment are: Pasturella spp., Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Moraxella, Corynebacterium, Neisseria, Fusobacterium, Bacteroides, Posphuomonoa, Capnocytophagacanimorsus, and Prevotella.

Treatments[edit][edit]

The subsequent treatment for those who have been attacked (if they survive) depends on the injuries. Though trauma may be addressed first, subsequent infections are also treated with appropriate antibiotics. The use of prophylactic antibiotics can significantly reduce the risk of producing a serious infection in the lesion. It is important to visit a doctor if the injury is very serious. Up to three-quarters of dog bites happen to those younger than 20 years-old. In the United States, the costs associated with dog bites are estimated to be more than $1 billion annually. The age groups that suffer most from dog bites are children 5 to 9 years old. Often, bites go unreported and no medical treatment is given. As many as one percent of pediatric emergency room visits are for treatment for animal bites. This is more frequent during the summer months. Up to five percent of children receiving emergency care for dog bites are then admitted to the hospital. Bites typically occur in the late afternoon and early evening. Girls are bitten more frequently by cats than they are by dogs. Boys are bitten by dogs two times more often than girls. To prevent serious and even fatal infections from bites, it is recommended to vaccinate both humans and animals with the rabies vaccine, even if the person is not directly exposed to that infection. In addition, it is essential to know and consider the probability of transmission, the animal species that caused the injury, the type of injury, the severity of the injury and age, health, and other aspects of the affected individual. In 1936, amputation was required in one-third of cases in which treatment was delayed for 24 hours or longer.

Medical codes for animal attacks[edit][edit]

Injuries resulting from encounters with animals occur with sufficient frequency to require the use of medical codes by clinicians and insurance companies to document such encounters. The ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Codes are used for the purpose of clearly identifying diseases, their causes, injuries in the United States. Clinicians use these codes to quantify the medical condition and its causes and to bill insurance companies for the treatment required as a result of encounters with animals.

Code	Description
W53	Contact with rodent
W54	Contact with dog
W55	Contact with other mammals
W56	Contact with nonvenomous marine animal
W57	Bitten or stung by nonvenomous insect and other nonvenomous arthropods
W58	Contact with crocodile or alligator
W59	Contact with other nonvenomous reptiles
W61	Contact with birds (domestic) (wild)
W62	Contact with nonvenomous amphibians
Reference:

Notable deaths[edit][edit]

Year	Name	Age	Details
1920	King Alexander of Greece	27 years	Monkey bite
1980	Azaria Chamberlain	2 months	Attacked by a dingo
1994	Allen Campbell	37 years	Crushed by circus elephant Tyke
2003	Timothy Treadwell	46 years	Devoured by a bear
2003	Vitaly Nikolayenko	65 years	Mauled by a bear
2006	Richard Root	68 years	Killed by a crocodile
2006	Steve Irwin	44 years	Killed by a stingray during a diving expedition
2006	Ali Khan Samsudin	48 years	Bitten by a king cobra.
2007	Surinder Singh Bajwa	44 years	Attacked by a group of Rhesus Macaques at his home and fell from a first floor balcony
2009	Taylor Mitchell	19 years	Coyote attack
2010	Dawn Brancheau	40 years	Killed by killer whale Tilikum.
2011	Horatio Chapple	17 years	Killed by a polar bear on an Arctic expedition

Bibliography[Mine][edit]

Sambyal, N., Proch, A., Singh, I., & Challana, A. (2019). Animal Bite: Rabies and Beyond Rabies; A Review. Int. J. Curr. Microbiol. App. Sci, 8(8), 602-618.
Presutti, R. J. (2001). Prevention and treatment of dog bites. American family physician, 63(8), 1567.
Goldstein, E. J., & Citron, D. M. (1988). Comparative activities of cefuroxime, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ciprofloxacin, enoxacin, and ofloxacin against aerobic and anaerobic bacteria isolated from bite wounds. Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 32(8), 1143-1148.
"dog bite". TheFreeDictionary.com. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
Clark, M. A., Sandusky, G. E., Hawley, D. A., Pless, J. E., Fardal, P. M., & Tate, L. R. (1991). Fatal and near-fatal animal bite injuries. Journal of Forensic Science, 36(4), 1256-1261.

External links[edit][edit]

	Wikimedia Commons has media related to Animal attacks.

NCIPC bibliography of articles on dog bites Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Animal bites, World Health Organization
CrocBITE