title: Treatment and outcome of unusual animal bite injuries in young children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Animal bites are a major cause of preventable traumatic injuries.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To provide more epidemiological information on animal bites, and assist in increasing awareness of the problem.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective chart review was performed including children aged &gt;13 years presenting with bite injuries (excluding dog and human bites) to the trauma unit at Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, over a 25-year period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred and thirteen children were eligible to be entered into the study. The median age was 2.9 years (range 1.2 - 6.5), with boys slightly predominating (54.9%). Most (74.6%) of the bite injuries were inflicted by mammals, the majority (64.8) of mammalian bites being rat bites. The proportions of boys and girls in the age group 0 - 4 years bitten by rats significantly differed from the proportions in the age group &gt;4 years (p=0.039). In the age group 0 - 4 years more girls suffered rat bites, while more boys were bitten in the age group &gt;4 years. Of 91 rat bites, 81 (89.0%) occurred inside the house. The hands (43.9%) and the head/face/neck region (39.0%) were most affected. The underdeveloped suburbs of Philippi, Gugulethu and Khayelitsha in Cape Town represented a disproportionate number (41.6%) of rat bites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a relationship between poverty, unemployment, poor housing, informal settlements and rodent infestation. These high-risk populations need to be the target for government rat eradication programmes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands. peterdeklerk@live.nl.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Klerk
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Dijk
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Van As