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Bacterial Infections · review
One Health · June 25, 2026
A consensus or society position rather than new primary data.
This narrative review summarizes the microbiology, pathogenic mechanisms, and clinical manifestations of dog bite-associated infections, covering bacterial pathogens and rabies virus within a One Health framework. It synthesizes existing knowledge without presenting original data or systematic evidence evaluation.
review. Humans sustaining dog bites.
Key bacterial pathogens include Pasteurella multocida, Capnocytophaga canimorsus, staphylococci, streptococci, and anaerobes Clinical outcomes range from localized wound infection to fulminant systemic disease and fatal encephalitis RABV has an almost universally fatal outcome after symptom onset
Safety was not reported in the material analysed. Check the source before drawing any conclusion about harm.
This review emphasizes the need for coordinated wound management, rapid diagnostics, rational antimicrobial use, canine vaccination, and timely rabies post-exposure prophylaxis. Clinicians should recognize that high-risk groups include children, older adults, and immunocompromised patients.
Narrative review synthesizing known microbiology, pathogenesis, and clinical consequences of dog bite infections without original data.
As stated by the source record.
This review emphasizes the need for coordinated wound management, rapid diagnostics, rational antimicrobial use, canine vaccination, and timely rabies post-exposure prophylaxis. Clinicians should recognize that high-risk groups include children, older adults, and immunocompromised patients.
Graded across the dimensions that decide whether you should act, each from what the source actually supports. There is no single score, and where a dimension was not assessed it says so.
What is missing. This record has no reported figures. That is a gap in the analysis, not a judgement about the study.
Dog bites are a common cause of injury worldwide and constitute a major public health challenge. In addition to mechanical trauma, they inoculate wounds with complex polymicrobial communities derived from the canine oral microbiota and, in rabies-endemic regions, may transmit rabies virus (RABV), leading to clinical outcomes ranging from localized wound infection to fulminant systemic disease and fatal encephalitis. This review summarizes recent advances in the microbiological profiles, pathogenic mechanisms, and systemic consequences of dog bite-associated infections in humans, integrating evidence from human and veterinary medicine within a One Health framework. Key bacterial pathogens include Pasteurella multocida (P. multocida), Capnocytophaga canimorsus (C. canimorsus), staphylococci, streptococci, and anaerobes, which can cause cellulitis, abscesses, necrotizing soft tissue infection, sepsis, meningitis, and endocarditis through tissue invasion, toxin production, and immune evasion. RABV remains the most devastating consequence of dog bites, with an almost universally fatal outcome after symptom onset, driven by glycoprotein-mediated neuronal entry, retrograde axonal transport, and profound evasion of host immune responses. Children, older adults, and immunocompromised individuals bear a disproportionate burden of severe disease. Reducing dog bite-associated morbidity and mortality requires coordinated progress in wound management, rapid molecular diagnostics, rational antimicrobial use, canine vaccination, and timely rabies post-exposure prophylaxis, underscoring the critical value of a One Health strategy.
Taken from the source record, never inferred. Follow any of these and new work involving them reaches your briefing.