BMJ  2007;334:425 (24 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39129.471505.94

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Dog attacks: it's time for doctors to bite back

London Deanery

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

This year, like previous years, has seen a spate of coverage in the British media of maulings by dogs, such as the one that killed a girl in Merseyside on 1 January (www.guardian.co.uk, "Dog kills five-year-old girl in home"). The most recent available data from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (www.rospa.co.uk) show that 70 000 people attended UK emergency departments in 2002 for injuries caused by dog bites. Many of these are attacks on children by the family pet and take place in the home (European Journal of Pediatrics 2003;162:254-8). Dog bites have become a public health concern and a child protection issue. As with many public health issues, however, individuals are reluctant to take responsibility and modify their behaviour. The medical profession is left to mop up the mess. Children are particularly vulnerable; one American study found that children aged under . . . [Full text of this article]

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