| A descriptive epidemiologic study was conducted to analyze the distribution of human exposures to rabies in urban and rural settings in Texas. The Texas Department of Health (TDH) Zoonosis Control Division maintains a database on all animals submitted for rabies testing and associated human exposures. Data on animals with a non-negative rabies test result that were investigated by TDH from January 1995 through August 2002 were analyzed using SPSS v11.0 to describe trends in human exposures to rabies. During the study period, 6624 animals were investigated and 1563 of these animals were responsible for a total of 3651 human exposures. This cross-sectional study evaluated univariate and bivariate frequencies of animal investigations by species, viral variant, number of humans exposed, and the location of exposure at the county and census tract level. Urban versus rural settings were defined using county level (Urban Influence Codes) and census tract level (Rural-Urban Commuting Codes) designations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
