I spend a lot of time talking about “emerging” infectious diseases. Some of these are truly emerging (i.e. new) diseases, some are conditions we couldn’t diagnose well before but now recognize more easily, and some are disease that have been there all along and are just getting more attention. However, while emerging infectious disease (especially zoonotic diseases) attract attention, we can’t ignore the “run-of-the-mill” problems.

Case in point: animal bites.

Bites are the most common animal-associated illness, and often lead to infection from bacteria in the animal’s mouth or on the person’s skin. A large percentage of bites are preventable, with education, training and supervision.

While we don’t want to blame the victim, there needs to be an onus on people to help protect themselves. I’m not always a fan of infographics and posters (since I’m not sure most really achieve anything) but here’s a bite-prevention poster from Spokane County (Washington State, US) that I really like.