Venomous bites and stings in Australia to 2005

Clare Bradley

May 2008
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Canberra
AIHW cat. no. INJCAT 110

This report describes the bites and stings due to contact with venomous animals and plants that resulted in a separation from an Australian hospital in the period 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2005. Analyses of bite and sting cases over time (1999–2005) are also presented.

Hospitalised bites and stings were most frequently attributed to spiders, bees and wasps while snakebites were a less frequent cause of hospitalisation. Higher rates of serious bites and stings were generally observed for males and for younger people. Little change in the rate of hospitalised bites and stings was noted over time.

This report demonstrates that changes made to the ICD-10-AM classification system from 1 July 2002 have greatly improved the specificity and utility of hospitalised bite and sting data.

The report is available as a PDF document (~ 1527 Kb).

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