Abstract
Rabies is a serious fatal disease and a public health problem in Ethiopia. This study was conducted to investigate knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) related to rabies and its prevention and control amongst households in Nekemte town and its surroundings. A cross-sectional study design was used. A multistage sampling procedure with simple random sampling technique was employed to select households. The data were obtained from 384 households through face to face interview using pretested and structured questionnaires. Statistical Packages for Social Sciences Windows version 16.0 was used for data analysis. Findings were described using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Chi square was used to show the association between outcome (KAP) and explanatory variables. Out of 384 respondents interviewed, 59.9% were males and 40.1% females, and 33.6% were between 15 and 30 years old. The majority of the respondents (47.4%) were protestant. Over 38.4% of the participants owned domestic dogs and 97.4% knew that dog bites transmit rabies. 53.1% participants had good level of KAP, making this outcome strongly associated with sex (χ²=18.06, p<0.08), age (χ²=85.4, p<0.001) and educational level (χ²=336.99, p<0.001). These findings indicate that the Nekemte community has good knowledge on rabies. But more work is required to raise the community knowledge regarding ways of infection, symptoms identifications, treatment measures as well as appropriate prevention methods. Key words: Rabies, Ethiopia, clinical signs, animal bites, post exposure prophylaxis, Nekemte.
Highlights
Rabies is an acute encephalitis illness caused by rabies virus in the genus, Lyssavirus and family, Rhabdoviridae
Rabies in humans was responsible for 1.74 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) losses each year
59.6% knew that virus is the cause of rabies, 97.4% were aware that dog is the most common source of rabies followed by cat 10 (2.6%) (Table 2). 39.6% of the respondents reported that hyper salivations are symptoms in rabid animals, while 18.75% mentioned that paralysis is manifested as sign. 78% of the respondents washed the wound with water and soap immediately, 35.7% seek health center, 45.8% had positive attitude for traditional healer. 90.7% of the participant identified dogs as the main animal, which transmit the disease, while 2.6% recognized the cat’s role in the transmission
Summary
Rabies is an acute encephalitis illness caused by rabies virus in the genus, Lyssavirus and family, Rhabdoviridae. The virus affects almost all mammals and results in death once clinical signs are manifested (Jackson and Wunner, 2007). Human mortality was estimated to be 55,000 deaths per year of which 56% occur in Asia and 44% in Africa. Rabies is endemic in developing countries of Africa and Asia (WHO, 1998) and about 98% of the human rabies cases occur in the developing nations (WHO, 2004). Rabies in humans was responsible for 1.74 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) losses each year. The annual cost of rabies in Africa and Asia was estimated at US$ 583.5 million besides, in Africa and Asia, the annual cost of livestock losses as a result of rabies is estimated to be US$ 12.3 Million (Knobel et al, 2005)
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