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Table 3 Key pre-hospital wound management practices for the 376 patients with non-infected and infected dog bite wounds

From: The potential for the double risk of rabies and antimicrobial resistance in a high rabies endemic setting: detection of antibiotic resistance in bacterial isolates from infected dog bite wounds in Uganda

  

Dog bite wound

 

Practices

Frequency

Non-infected N = 177 (47.1%)

Infected N = 199 (52.9%)

p-value

Delayed for more than 24 h

No

227 (60.4)

112 (63.3)

115 (57.8)

 

Yes

149 (39.6)

65 (36.7)

84 (42.2)

0.277

Washed with water and soap

No

204 (55.4)

91 (52.3)

113 (58.3)

 

Yes

172 (44.6)

86 (47.7)

86 (41.8)

0.296

Antibiotics administered**

No

250 (66.5)

122 (68.9)

128 (64.3)

 

Yes

126 (33.5)

55 (31.1)

71 (35.7)

0.345

Antiseptic applied

No

330 (87.8)

146 (82.5)

184 (92.5)

 

Yes

46 (12.2)

31 (17.5)

15 (7.5)

0.003*

Complied with UCG***

No

306 (81.4)

145 (81.9)

161 (80.9)

 

Yes

70 (18.6)

32 (18.1)

38 (19.1)

0.800

  1. *Significance at p≤0.05
  2. **Antimicrobials administered prior to the patient presenting at the PET center
  3. ***The patient had washed the dog bite wound with water and soap in addition to seeking medical care within 24 h
  4. The key pre-hospital wound management practices for the 199 patients with non-infected and infected dog bite wounds. Of the 376 study participants, 149 (39.6%) delayed to report to the PET center. However, the differences in the delays between the study participants with infected wounds and those with non-infected wounds were not statistically significant (p = 0.277). In addition, only 19.1% (n = 38) of the 199 participants with infected wounds had complied with the pre-clinical guidelines, which included reported washing of the wounds with water and soap and presenting to a healthcare facility within 24 h. Notably, compliance to UCG did not differ between patients with infected wounds and those with non-infected wounds (p = 0.800) while the infection rates between those who applied an anticeptic and those who did not, differed significantly (p = 0.003)