Human and animal bites: antimicrobial prescribing

Context

Human and animal bites are at risk of infection. Human bites are most commonly infected by Streptococcus, Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus, Eikenella corrodens, Bacteroides and other anaerobes. Most infections from animal bites are polymicrobial and contain both aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Causative organisms for infections from cat and dog bites (the most common animal bites) include Pasteurella, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Neisseria, Corynebacterium, Fusobacterium nucleatum and Bacteroides (Abrahamian et al. 2011).