Experience with human bites in Zimbabwe

We present a study of 64 patients treated for human bites at Mpilo Central Hospital in the two-and-a-half-year period from January 1988 to June 1990. The majority of patients, i.e. 35 (55 pc) were treated on an outpatient basis, where as the remaining 29 patients (45 pc) required in-patient treatment. There were more female victims, 36 (56 pc) than male victims, 28 (44 pc), during the course of this study. The commonest human bites involved the lower lip and the fingers which between them accounted for 53 pc of the cases. The assailant was a women in 61 pc of cases, a man in 35 pc of cases and a child in the remainder. Altercations between husband and wife were the most likely to end up in human bite cases.