Conference Abstract | Volume 9 (ConfProc7): Abstract 114 | Published: 13 Oct 2026
Asumah Mohammed Kamil1,2,&, George Akowuah2, Magdalene Odikro2, Gideon Kye-Doudu2,3, Samuel Sackey2
1Veterinary Service Directorate, Pusiga District, 2Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme, School of Public Health, Legon, Accra, 3 Fred Newton Binka School of Public Health, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Volta Region
&Corresponding author: Asumah Mohammed Kamil ,Veterinary Service Directorate, Pusiga District, Email: asumahmohammedkamil7@gmail.com
Received: 29 Aug 2025, Accepted: 28 Oct 2025, Published: 13 Oct 2026
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
This is part of the Proceedings of the 8th Ghana FELTP Scientific Conference and FELTP Competency Graduation, Accra, Ghana, 10 – 11 December, 2025
Keywords: Investigation, dog bite, rabies, risk, assessment, Pusiga District, Ghana
©Asumah Mohammed Kamil et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Asumah Mohammed Kamil et al. Investigation of a dog bite incident and rabies risk assessment in Widana Community, Pusiga District, Ghana, August 2025. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2026;9(ConfProc7):114. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO7-00114
Dog bites pose significant public health concerns globally, especially in communities with large populations of free-roaming dogs and limited access to veterinary care. Rabies, which is primarily transmitted to humans through dog bites lead to an estimated 59,000 human deaths annually. On August 8, 2025, a dog bite incident was recorded in Widana community in the Pusiga District. We investigated to confirm the bite incident, manage the cases involved and determine the vaccination status of the canine.
The victim is a 70-year-old male who sustained bite wounds on his lower leg from a male dog after running his bicycle into two copulating dogs. The victim immediately washed the wound with soap and water at a nearby house before reporting to the Widana Health Center, where he received rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) the same day. The dog owner confirmed that the dog had been vaccinated against rabies. No signs or symptoms of rabies were observed in either the victim or the dog after the 14-day observation period. Both dog and victim remained healthy.
We confirmed a dog bite incident involving a 70-year-old man and a vaccinated dog in Pusiga District. The case and canine were adequately managed and remain healthy after a two-week observation period. Community sensitization on rabies vaccination and the effects of dog bites and rabies was carried out.
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