Results of animal-bite and rabies case surveillance in South Korea, 2018

Lee Ji Yeon, Lee Shin Young, Cho Eun Hee
Division of Control for Zoonotic and vector-borne Diseases, Center for Infectious Disease Control, KCDC

Since 2011, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has enhanced the National Animal Bite Patient Surveillance (NABPS) to effectively monitor the animal-associated bite incidents, focusing on human rabies occurrences. The number of animal bite cases has been on an increase trend, from 359 in 2005 to 780 in 2018, whereas no human rabies cases had been reported. Of the 780 animal bites reported in 2018, the higher frequency was observed in male (54.2%) than in female (45.8%), along with the relatively high frequency (21.9%, 171 cases) of those aged 50-59. By time, the higher proportion of bite incidents occurred between July-August (89.2%, 696 cases), and the geographical frequency was the highest in Gyeonggi province (48.5%, 378 cases), followed by Gangwon province (40.7%, 318 cases). The biting animals accounted for dog (89.5%), followed by cat (7.7%). About 72.3% of animal bite patients, classified as the Category of exposure Ⅲ (single or multiple transdermal bites or scratches, licks on broken skin, contamination of mucous membrane with saliva and exposure to bats) by World Health Organization, had promptly completed the treatment according to the guideline on human rabies prevention and control.


Keywords: Rabies, Animal bite, National Animal Bite Patient Surveillance