This represents 4.7% of hospitalised injuries and 0.2% of injury deaths.
In medical coding terms, this topic includes exposure to animate mechanical forces, contact with venomous animals and plants and exposure to or contact with allergens: allergy to animals.
Because of the low number of deaths from contact with living things, they are not discussed below.
This category only includes unintentional injuries. Intentional harm is included under Assault and homicide.
In 2019–20:
- contact with non-venomous animals was the top cause (62%) of hospitalisations in this category (Table 1). Of these, half (52%) involved dogs (Table 2)
- person-to-person contact accounted for a quarter (26%) of hospitalisations in this category (Table 1)
- for hospitalisations involving venomous animals, bees and wasps (24%) were the most common (Table 3).
Table 1: Causes of injury hospitalisations due to contact with living things, 2019–20
Cause
|
Hospitalisations
|
%
|
Rate
(per 100,000)
|
Contact with non-venomous animals (W53–59, W61)
|
15,391
|
62
|
60
|
Unintentional person-to-person contact (W50–52)
|
6,417
|
26
|
25
|
Contact with venomous animals and plants (X20-29)
|
2,465
|
10
|
9.7
|
Contact with plants (W60)
|
420
|
1.7
|
1.6
|
Allergy to animals (Y37.6)
|
80
|
0.3
|
0.3
|
Other and unspecified (W64)
|
193
|
0.8
|
0.8
|
Total
|
24,966
|
100
|
98
|
Notes
1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population, calculated using estimated resident population as at 31 December of the relevant year.
2. Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
3. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes (ACCD 2019).
4. Person-to-person contact includes being hit, struck, kicked, twisted, bitten or scratched by another person, striking against or bumping into another person, and being crushed, pushed or stepped on by crowd or human stampede. Injuries involving a fall as a result of a collision with or pushing by another person are not included. See Falls.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
Table 2: Non-venomous animals involved in injury hospitalisations, 2019–20
Type of animal
|
Number
|
%
|
Rate
(per 100,000)
|
Dogs (W54)
|
8,037
|
52
|
31
|
Other mammals (W55)
|
4,472
|
29
|
18
|
Non-venomous snakes, lizards and other reptiles (W59)
|
1,966
|
13
|
7.7
|
Non-venomous insects and arthropods (including spiders) (W57)
|
619
|
4
|
2.4
|
Non-venomous marine animals (excluding crocodiles) (W56)
|
203
|
1.3
|
0.8
|
Birds (W61)
|
53
|
0.3
|
0.2
|
Rats (W53)
|
30
|
0.2
|
0.1
|
Crocodiles and alligators (W58)
|
11
|
0.1
|
0.0
|
Total
|
15,391
|
100
|
60
|
Notes
1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population, calculated using estimated resident population as at 31 December of the relevant year.
2. Percentages and rate may not sum to total due to rounding.
3. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes (ACCD 2019).
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
Table 3: Venomous animals involved in injury hospitalisations, 2019–20
Type of venomous animal
|
Number
|
%
|
Rate
(per 100,000)
|
Bees and wasps (X23)
|
600
|
24
|
2.4
|
Spiders (X21)
|
582
|
24
|
2.3
|
Snakes (X20)
|
539
|
22
|
2.1
|
Others (X22, X24–X29)
|
744
|
30
|
3.0
|
Total
|
2,465
|
100
|
9.7
|
Notes
1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population, calculated using estimated resident population as at 31 December of the relevant year.
2. Percentages may not sum to total due to rounding.
4. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes (ACCD 2019).
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
For more detail, see Data tables B19–20.
Hospital admissions due to contact with living things appear to display a minor seasonal pattern, with peaks in summer and autumn before a low from July to October.
In March 2020 the first lockdowns and social distancing measures associated with COVID-19 interrupted the usual activity of Australians. The restrictions to movement and activity coincided with a marked drop in overall injury hospitalisations. For injuries due to contact with living things, there were 28% fewer admissions from March to May than in the same period of the previous year.
See the interactive COVID-19 display for data and further discussion about the impact on hospital admissions.
Figure 1: Hospitalisations due to contact with living things, by month, 2017–18 to 2019–20

Notes
1. Months have been standardised to 31 days.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.