Dog Bites in Humans and Estimating Human Rabies Mortality in Rabies Endemic Areas of Bhutan

Dog bites in humans are a public health problem worldwide. We conducted a hospital based questionnaire survey and described the incidence and risk factors for human dog bites in Bhutan. We also estimated the human death rate attributable to rabies in two rabies endemic areas of south Bhutan. Our study shows that dog bites incidents in humans are common in the survey areas. There were significant gender and age differences in bite incidents; males and the children are affected the most. The majority of the victims were bitten by stray dogs, increasing the risk of rabies infection if not treated in time. Our decision tree model predicted 2.23 (95% CI: 1.20–3.59) human deaths from rabies/year, equivalent to an annual incidence of 4.67 (95% CI: 2.53–7.53) deaths/100,000 in the two rabies endemic areas of south Bhutan. In the absence of post exposure prophylaxis, the model predicted 19.24 (95% CI: 13.69–25.14) deaths/year in these two areas. The public should be encouraged to visit hospitals for post exposure prophylaxis following dog bite injury in south Bhutan

Crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever virus IgG in goats, Bhutan

LetterSonam Wangchuk, Sonam Pelden, Tenzin Dorji, Sangay Tenzin, Binay Thapa, Sangay Zangmo, Ratna Gurung, Kinzang Dukpa, Tenzin Tenzi

Phylogenetic tree constructed base on the deduced amino acid sequences of the VP7 genes of G9 strains.

<p>Bhutanese strains are indicated by black squares, which are followed by the strain numbers. Human rotavirus KH210 (G5) was used as an outgroup. The numbers adjacent to nodes represent the bootstrap values; values <70% are not shown. The scale bar shows the genetic distance, which is expressed as amino acid substitutions per site. The DNA Data Bank of Japan/European Molecular Biology Laboratory/GenBank accessions numbers are: AB905463 (rotavirus strain BTN-22), AB905464 (BTN-49), AB905465 (BTN-87), and AB905466 (BTN-88).</p

Phylogenetic tree constructed based on the deduced amino acid sequences of the VP8* genes of G1, G9, and G12 strains from Bhutan and global P[8], P[6], P[5], and P[4] strains.

<p>The species and country of origin are shown in parentheses after the strain name. The numbers adjacent to node represent the bootstrap values; values<70% are not shown. The scale bar shows the genetic distance, which is expressed as amino acid substitutions per site. The DNA Data Bank of Japan/European Molecular Biology Laboratory/GenBank accessions numbers are: AB905368 (rotavirus strain BTN-05), AB905369 (BTN-07), AB905370 (BTN-120), AB905371 (BTN-23), AB905372 (BTN-88), AB905373 (BTN-49), AB905374 (BTN-22), AB905375 (BTN-27), AB905376 (BTN-43), AB905377 (BTN-55).</p

Comparison of the antigenic residues in the VP8* head of VP4 from RotaTeq and Rotarix, and strains circulating in Bhutan.

<p>The respective antigenic epitopes are shown above the residue numbers. The amino acid residues in Bhutanese strains that differed from those in the vaccine strains are highlighted. The amino acid residues highlighted in yellow indicate that the residue is different from the other vaccine strain and Bhutanese strains. BTN-22 and BTN-49 belong to lineage 4 of genotype P<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0110795#pone.0110795-Banyai1" target="_blank">[8]</a>.</p

Phylogenetic tree constructed based on the deduced amino acid sequences of the VP7 genes of G1 strains.

<p>Bhutanese strains are indicated by black squares, which are followed by the strain numbers. Human rotavirus KH210 (G5) was used as an outgroup. The numbers adjacent to nodes represent the bootstrap values; values <70% have not shown. The scale bar shows the genetic distance, which is expressed as amino acid substitutions per site. The DNA Data Bank of Japan/European Molecular Biology Laboratory/GenBank accessions numbers are: AB905455 (rotavirus strain BTN-23), AB905456 (BTN-64), AB905457 (BTN-55), AB905458 (BTN-126), AB905459 (BTN-43), AB905460 (BTN-132), AB905461 (BTN-27), and AB905462 (BTN-39).</p

Electropherotypes of rotaviruses identified in Bhutan.

<p>On the extreme left, SA-11 indicates the electropherotype of strain Sa-11, which was used as a marker in each electrophoresis run. In total, 10 electropherotypes were identified, E1–E10. The genotype of each electropherotype is shown below the electropherotype. With the exception of E7, the electropherotypes had long patterns. Among five strains from Mongar, three were electropherotype E4, one E10, and one was untypable.</p