How serious is a monkey bite?

Q.  My wife just informed me over the telephone that a monkey has bitten her on her leg.
She consulted a nearby doctor and took preliminary treatment. She was administered
injections and advised medicines. The doctor has asked her that more injections will be
administered later. My wife told me that she was feeling pain at the spot of the bite in the leg
and on the arm where the injection was administered. She told me that she was finding it
difficult to do household work with this pain. Now I request you to let know what should be
done next? What precautions should one take? Is a monkey bite fatal? Are there particular
foods she should avoid?
A.  All animal bites have the potential to cause serious reactions in the skin and underlying
tissue and there is even the danger of gas gangrene. Fortunately, most bites are not a
danger, and in fact bites from a human can cause more serious infection at the site and can
even result in bacterial infection of the heart valves. Any of these problems could be serious
or even life threatening and may need a physicians intervention. In all cases of animal bites
of more than a superficial nature a tetanus shot should be taken if one had not been given
within recent years. Diet will make no difference to a monkey victim, but bananas and
peanuts would be reasonable.

Which vaccines for monkey bite?

It depends if the monkey was wild or in a zoo/pet setting. Usually the vaccines given are
Tetanus, and Rabies post-exposure shots. If the animal was in a zoo or pet then chance it has rabies
are slim to none. Personally I would forgo the rabies shots. There has never been a reported case in
the us of a primate with Rabies. The monkey would have to exposed to rabies first just as in humans.
Tetanus shots are given more so to prevent infection from dirt which may enter the bite area, not so
much the actual bite. Really the most important thing when bitten by a monkey, or any animal really,
is to keep the bite wound clean, and away from dirt. If the bite wound is severe doctor will prescribe
an antibiotic such as Amoxicillin.

If the animal was wild then the risk of carrying disease is slightly higher, but usually people
are given the above shots and are fine. Its really not that serious. The only monkey which
may potentially carry a virus is macaques who sometimes carry Herpes B. But it is very
difficult to transmit, as teh animal must be under severe stress to transmit it. Again there has
never been a case in the US of macs shedding herpes B in the pet or zoo sector. Only 2 cases
in research labs where animals are sometimes under severe stress.

Monkey Bite. Dangerous?

I decided to ask this question over here because it is not directly PDC related.
And just to clarify, I am not asking for medical advice (moderators) but for
information.

Today we visited Crococun with the kids. We have been before, but the kids love
to go so back we went. I am sure many of you are familiar with Jessica the
spider monkey. The deal is that you hold up a banana and she comes out of the
jungle and you can feed her. Jessica's mother is a local resident and will come
out too.

So my kids were taking turns feeding Jessica. My 12 year old daughter was
giving her a piece of banana which was a bit too small and Jessica took a piece
of her finger with it. When I say that I mean she broke the skin and with several
bite marks. There was quite a bit of bleeding.

I of course got the bleeding to stop, washed the wound, and disinfected it very
well. I am told by the zoo staff that all of their monkeys are checked semi-
annually by the government which is required because they are a zoo. I was told
that Jessica got a clean bill of health just a few months ago and that my
daughter was in no danger. But as the property manager of the condo reminded
me just yesterday , "this is Mexico".

Do any of the locals know if this is true? Is there any information about rabies
locally for example? Would a monkey in a local mexican zoo get vaccinated
against rabies? Other vacinations? I was assured that they are vaccinated, but
they would not show me any documentation. In the states they would have been
tripping over themselves to show me such documentation if it existed.

I certainly know how to tell if it gets infected. I am more concerned about more
insidious diseases that might be passed. I will have her see the Pediatrician upon
our return, but would like to have as much info as possible for them. I am sure
this is the first Monkey bite patient our pediatrician will have seen.

Just to clarify for other readers, Jessica is a wonderful monkey and all of us will
visit and feed her again. But she is an animal and no matter how gentle she is
you still have to be careful. My daughter put her hand in the monkeys mouth
and got bit. It was not Jessica's fault at all. You will love her (and her beautiful
baby) so take the kids to go see her. Just be careful where they put their hands.