A survey of dog bites in Salisbury

A recent survey of patients attending an Accident and Emergency (A&E) department serving several economically depressed Thanet coastal towns found that around 3 per 1000 of the resident population attended each year for the treatment of dog bite injuries (Thomas and Banks, 1990). We report a study of dog bite injuries treated in the A&E department serving Salisbury, a small prosperous Cathedral city, and surrounding villages. In comparison with Thanet, age specific incidence rates for dog bites show a similar pattern but only about half the overall incidence. Some reasons for these findings are suggested and extrapolations for national treatment figures are made.