Number of people killed by animals in the U.S. remains unchanged
People with known allergic reactions to bee stings should carry a portable epinephrine delivery device with them at all times. “With an estimated 220,000 annual visits to the emergency department and nearly 60 deaths per year due to stings from hornets, wasps, and bees, effective and affordable treatment for anaphylaxis from Hymenoptera is critical,” said Dr. Forrester. “Public health practitioners, policymakers, and the public should encourage industry to provide proven public health interventions, like the EpiPen, at a socially responsible price point that serves the best interests of the U.S. population.”
The most common nonvenomous encounter group in the study was “other mammals,” which includes cats, horses, cows, other hoof stock, pigs, raccoons, and other mammals. Previous studies determined that the majority deaths associated with “other mammals” occur on farms and that horses and cattle account for 90 percent of farm accidents.
“Preventing potentially fatal farm animal encounters should be a better promoted and supported public health initiative,” explained Dr. Forrester. “Farming remains an industry with a deficit of work-related injury reporting, and opportunities exist to improve safety measures and injury reporting on farms in the US.”
Second to “other mammals,” the study found that dogs are the next most common type of fatal nonvenomous animal encounter, with children under 4 years of age having the highest dog-related fatality rate (4.6 deaths per 10 million persons). The rate of children under 4 years of age killed by dogs was almost two times higher than the next most vulnerable group (persons older than 65 years of age) and four times higher than other age groups.
According to Dr. Forrester, “The burden of fatality upon young children after dog encounters remains troubling. These are preventable deaths.”
Accounting for around 201 deaths annually, mortality resulting from animals is a public health area of interest. Each year in the United States alone, over one million emergency room visits and approximately $2 billion in healthcare spending are attributable to problematic animal encounters. Both deaths and high medical costs could be cut down through education, prevention methods, and targeted public policy.
Understanding the underlying reasons for why people die from animal encounters may help prevent them in the future. “Unfortunately, deaths due to human-animal encounters did not decrease from our prior study. Animal-related deaths in ‘controllable’ situations, such as on the farm or in the home, still account for the majority of the deaths. Little in the way of public health policy in the farm workplace has changed since our previous paper,” concluded Dr. Forrester. “Increased specificity in the coding of deaths due to animals in farm environments would help public health professionals target interventions.”
— Read more in Jared A. Forrester et al., “An Update on Fatalities Due to Venomous and Nonvenomous Animals in the United States (2008–2015),” Wilderness & Environmental Medicine 29, no. 1 (March 2018): 36-44 (DOI: 10.1016/j.wem.2017.10.004)
