Animal bites and rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, active and reserve components, U.S. Armed Forces, 2011–2018

During 2011–2018, there were 22,729 diagnoses of animal bites among active and reserve component members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Of these, 899 (4.0%) were documented during medical encounters associated with deploy-ments to overseas theaters of operations. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps members were affected by 55.6%, 23.5%, 14.2%, and 6.7% of all animal bites diagnosed in theater, respectively. More than four-fifths of total animal bite cases (82.4%) and bites diagnosed in theater (88.4%) affected enlisted members. The crude overall incidence rate of animal bite diagnoses was 175.7 per 100,000 person-years (p-yrs) among active component service members between 2011 and 2018. Overall rates were highest among active component service members who worked in law enforcement (462.5 per 100,000 p-yrs) or veterinary occupations (437.8 per 100,000 p-yrs). Among active component service members, the crude annual rate of animal bite diagnoses in 2018 was more than twice that in 2001 (191.4 per 100,000 p-yrs and 85.1 per 100,000 p-yrs, respectively). Dog bites accounted for approximately three-quarters (74.8%) of total animal bites during the surveillance period. Only a small proportion of animal bites were associated with documentation of exposure to or post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies. Animal bite avoidance and rabies edu-cation should be reinforced before service members travel or deploy to areas where rabies is highly enzootic.