Abstract
BackgroundRabies is a fatal zoonotic disease that has been known in Ethiopia for centuries in society as “Mad Dog Disease”. It is an important disease with veterinary and public health significance in the North western zone of Tigray where previous studies have not been conducted. Frequent occurrence of outbreaks in the area led the researchers to carry out a four year retrospective study to estimate the incidence of human rabies exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia.MethodologyA referent study was conducted on human rabies exposure cases recorded from 2012 to 2015 at Suhul hospital, Shire Endaselase, Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia. Exposure cases included in this research constituted victims bitten by unprovoked dogs and who received post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) at the hospital. Two thousand one hundred eighty human rabies exposure cases retrieved from the rabies case database were included in this study.Principal findingsThe majority of the exposed cases were males (1363/2180, 63%). Age wise, the most exposed age group was ≥15 years in all the study years: 166 (58%), 335 (65%), 492 (66%) and 394 (63%) in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Similarly, exposure cases for human rabies increased with age in both males and females across the study years. The incidence of human rabies exposure cases calculated per 100,000 populations was 35.8, 63.0, 89.8 and 73.1 in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that being male was a risk for human rabies exposure in all the study years.ConclusionThe study discovered the highest annual human rabies exposure incidence in Ethiopia. This suggests an urgent need for synergistic efforts of human and animal health sectors to implement prevention and control strategies in this area.
Highlights
Rabies is a fatal and one of the most important reemerging zoonotic diseases throughout the world, caused by RNA viruses that affect the central nervous system of all warm-blooded animals, including humans [1, 2]
Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that being male was a risk for human rabies exposure in all the study years
The aim of the study was to determine the incidence of human rabies exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia, where studies have not been conducted, outbreaks of the disease were common
Summary
Rabies is a fatal and one of the most important reemerging zoonotic diseases throughout the world, caused by RNA viruses that affect the central nervous system of all warm-blooded animals, including humans [1, 2]. Carnivores are one of the primary virus reservoirs and rabid dogs pose the greatest hazard of rabies worldwide [3]. Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease that has been known in Ethiopia for centuries in society as “Mad Dog Disease”. It is an important disease with veterinary and public health significance in the North western zone of Tigray where previous studies have not been conducted. Frequent occurrence of outbreaks in the area led the researchers to carry out a four year retrospective study to estimate the incidence of human rabies exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia
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