The human bite could be as dangerous as a snake’s

Many times a human bite is taken as a domestic accident not worth treating. What is true however, is that the victim if not properly handled may never live to tell the story.

A human bite can be as dangerous or even more dangerous than a non-poisonous snake or animal bite because of the types of bacteria and viruses contained in the omnivorous (eating many different types of food, including both plants and animals) human mouth. And this is regardless of how clean one’s teeth may be. The same dangers of infection still exist.

There are not less than 500 different tribes of small organisms in the mouth. These, however, usually exist harmlessly, unless there are problems with one’s immunity and they can opportunistically cause infection, or if they are transferred to another part of the body, say by a bite.

Though the immediate problems with a human bite are pain and bleeding, the next and more dangerous problem are infections from these usually harmless mouth germs, including those that cause the dangerous tetanus. Victims of the bites without treatment have had their hands amputated.

Breast feeding babies’ bites do not carry much medical threat because they not only cause minor injuries but also at the time don’t have as many bad types of oral germs that develop with dietary diversification.

First aid treatment for a human bite
To limit the dangers posed by the teeth, one should wash the affected area with soap and running water for at least three minutes. If there is serious bleeding, then a clean bandage should be applied with adequate, but not too much pressure, as this could end up compromising the blood supply with gangrene (local death and decay of soft tissues of the body as a result of lack of blood to the area) consequences if it involves fingers or hands.

Then, quickly, the victim should be taken to hospital. If one has not had a tetanus shot in the past 5 years, he will need a booster and in addition may require strong antibiotics to fend off bacterial germs. Unfortunately, the threat of HIV and Hepatitis germs still looms large in case the one biting has the viruses.

Therefore tests on the offender may need to be taken and advice on how to proceed, depending on the results, sought from a medical doctor. If the offender is for instance found positive, there is preventive treatment for the victim, which is the Post exposure prophylaxis drugs, as advised by a doctor.

But even with the best treatment the victim has to look out for swelling, pus formation or pain, in case the infection appears later and unexpectedly.