Pattern and burden of animal bite cases in a tertiary care hospital in Haryana.

Rabies is an endemic disease in both developed and developing world and is responsible for a large number of morbidities and mortalities in humans. Limited supply of vaccine hampers the accessibility of life saving treatment. In our study carried out in a tertiary care hospital in Haryana showed that there were 3617 animal bite cases reported in a year with an average of 9.91 new cases per day. The average economic burden related to management of these bite cases is 3.5 lacs per month. This cost along with vaccine demand can be substantially reduced if intradermal schedule is introduced.