Orangutan bite requires ‘unique’ consideration of herpes B prophylaxis: case report
A zoo visitor was injured when his arm was pulled through a mesh screen.
An orangutan bite left a 29-year-old zoo visitor with a fractured finger, puncture wounds and multiple prophylaxis medications including valacyclovir for herpes B, doctors report.
The orangutan pulled the man’s arm through a mesh screen, biting his hand and forearm in the incident in the US.
He was taken to Saint Vincent Hospital in Pennsylvania, with tenderness of the right elbow over the lateral epicondyle and dislocation of his fourth right finger, along with lacerations consistent with bite wounds.
One of the main concerns with primate bites is the animal’s health status and prior serological history of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the US doctors wrote in Cureus.
