References
Use of co-amoxiclav for the treatment of dog bites
Abstract
A large number of people are bitten by dogs—approximately 19 in every 1000 people in the UK per year with even higher proportions in France and the United States. Co-amoxiclav is the most effective antibiotic treatment following a dog bite as it covers the most likely polymicrobial aerobic and anaerobic organisms that infect dog bite wounds (
A dog bite is defined as an injury caused by the teeth and mouth of a dog that disrupts the deep anatomical structure of the skin causing tissue injury, and the introduction of infectious agents into the human body and circulation (Spencer and Banerjee, 2019).
A recent cross-sectional study of factors associated with dog bites in the UK by Westgarth et al (2018) suggested that the estimated incidence of dog bites in humans was around 19 per 1000 population per year. This is a significantly larger figure than the one in approximately 250 000 people in the UK who attended emergency departments and minor injury units reported in Morgan and Palmer's (2007) earlier paper.
The figures are higher in France, with 37.5 cases per 100 000 population (Chomel and Trotognon, 1992), and significantly greater numbers are reported in the United States, where approximately 4.5 million dog bites on humans occur annually (World Health Organization (WHO), 2018). This demonstrates the large worldwide prevalence of this problem, as well as the importance of using the most effective, appropriate and up-to-date treatment.
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