Microbiologia Médica e Diagnóstico

Assessment of Basic Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Community on Rabies and Retrospective Survey in and around Ambo Town, West Shoa Zone of Ethiopia

Abstract

Tamiru Dabuma, Tadele Kabeta and Hylemariam Mihiretie Mengist

Background: Rabies is acute fatal encephalitis that affects all mammals and is a worldwide zoonotic disease caused by rabies virus. Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice (KAP) of the community on rabies is vital to prevent the neglected deadly disease. The aim of the study was to assess the KAP of the community on rabies in and around Ambo town, Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross sectional and retrospective studies were conducted from November 2015-April 2016 in and around Ambo town to assess knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of community on rabies; and to know a oneyear status of human rabies suspected case in Ambo hospital. The study participants were enrolled consecutively, and data was collected using questionnaires. Data was cleaned, coded and entered for analysis by SPSS version 20 software. KAP were defined based on mean scores.

Results: The questioners survey indicated that the communities had poor knowledge, good attitude and good practice with (46.1%), (50.5%) and (63.5%), respectively. Hence the overall KAP scores were good (53.4%) implying that the communities had good awareness about rabies. There was no statically significant association between sex and age of respondents with knowledge, attitude and practice scores (p>0.05). There was statistically significant association between educational level with knowledge and attitude scores (p<0.05). The retrospective review showed that the majority of suspected cases were males (52.4%). Almost all suspected cases were bitten by dog (94.2%) followed by human bites (3.8%). Majority of suspected case were recorded in autumn and winter (35.6%).

Conclusion: This study showed that there was terrestrial rabies (human, canine, sylvatic) that leads to human rabies suspected case and awareness of respondents on rabies were good although poor about wound management for bitten individuals in the study areas. Further public awareness creation is still essential on multidimensional impacts of rabies, responsible pet ownership, managements of bitten animals, first aid treatment and on the use of traditional remedy.