Knowledge, Attitude, Behavior and Practice Study on Dog-Bites and Its Management in the Context of Prevention of Rabies in a Rural Community of Gujarat

Abstract

Research question : What is the level of general awareness and knowledge of people about dog bites and its first aid measure with anti-rabies vaccines? Objectives : 1) To know the general awareness pertaining to rabies in rural community. 2) To study the knowledge of people about dog-bites. 3) To ascertain the first aid measures adopted by people after dog bite. 4) To study the awareness of people regarding anti rabies vaccines & health services utilization. 5) To know the opinion regarding control of dog population. 6) To make recommendations based on study findings. Methodology : Study design : cross sectional study. 2) Setting : village surrounding the PSMC, Anand. 3) Participants : total 225 families were contacted in nine villages with 25 families per village. Results : All of the individuals were aware about rabies and 98.6% knew about its transmission by dog bite. Only 31.1% would like to apply first aid measure and 36.4% will visit to doctor and rest either do nothing or adopt some religious practices to prevent the development of rabies. 86.6% of individuals were aware about anti-rabies vaccine and 24.4% knew that pet dogs need vaccine against rabies. Statistical analysis : The data was analyzed by using ′Epi-info′ package.

Keywords

• Rabies
• General awareness
• First-aid Measure
• Religious Practices
• and Anti-Rabies Vaccines