Analysis on incubation period of human rabies and its influential factors in Hunan Province from 2004 to 2007.

[Objective] To investigate the incubation period of human rabies and its influential factors in Hunan province,so as to understand the natural history of rabies.[Methods] Totally 1 059 rabies individual cases from 2004 to 2007 were collected,and further entered into database with EpiData3.1 software.Non-parameter test based on Mann-whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were later carried out for incubation period with SPSS 13.0 software.[Results] Among the 1 059 cases,the incubation period ranged from 7 to 2 760 days,with its medium day at 56 d.It found that the incubation period had a statistic correlation with the following 13 factors as age,occupation,exposure degree,exposure sites,wound treatment,wound washing,wound disinfecting,wound suture,post-exposure human rabies vaccine injection,pre-exposure immunization,animal kinds,animal source,the causes of the biting,where both Mann-whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test showed they were significant(P﹤0.05).[Conclusion] Incubation period of human rabies is affected by many factors,main factors are exposure degree,exposure sites,wound treatment.