Five-year (January 2004-December 2008) surveillance on animal bite and rabies vaccine utilization in the Infectious Disease Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The magnitude of animal bite and utilization of rabies vaccine was determined at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh. From January 2004 to December 2008, 150,068 patients with animal bite visited the hospital, 86.2% and 13.8% of them received nerve tissue and tissue culture vaccine (TCV), respectively. Dog bite was most frequent, found in 90.7% cases. In 794 rabies cases only 24.4% had a history of post-exposure vaccination. Only a negligible number of patients received rabies immunoglobulin (RIG). To prevent further human deaths and economic losses intra-dermal TCV regime and equine RIG should be immediately introduced in Bangladesh.