Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice towards rabies and associated factors among household heads in Mekelle city, Ethiopia

Hagos, Weldegerima Gebremedhin; Muchie, Kindie Fentahun; Gebru, Goyitom Gebremdehn; Mezgebe, Gebreamlak Gebremariam; Reda, Kebede Ambaye; Dachew, Berihun Assefa

doi:10.1186/s12889-020-8145-7

Cited by 44 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our results showed that 49% of the respondents within the HMP were pet owners (owning a cat, a dog or a combination of the two). This level of pet ownership was similar to what was observed in other studies in Africa, where pet ownership was reportedly between 40% and 58% [ 17 – 19 ]. Within the pet owner sub-population specifically, 60% of the respondents within the HMP reported taking their pet(s) to a veterinary office.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…While respondents in our study were never specifically asked whether they had their pets vaccinated at any point in time, these observations would suggest that approximately 43% of the owned dog population should theoretically have received their annual vaccination against rabies every year. Assuming this to be accurate, the results would be similar to findings from Uganda [ 17 ] and Kenya [ 21 ] where a low percentage of respondents (between 35% and 43%) reported having their pets vaccinated against rabies, and in contradiction to findings from Nigeria [ 18 ], Ethiopia [ 19 ] and Rwanda [ 20 ] where a much higher percentage of respondents (between 74% and 94%) reported having their pets vaccinated against rabies. Furthermore, this speculative vaccination coverage in the HMP (30%) is well below the recommended vaccination coverage of 70% [ 1 ], which could explain the persistence of the disease in the province.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…The result of our study suggested that only 36% of the 798 respondents included in our study had an adequate knowledge of rabies, which was similar to what was observed in Uganda (41%) [ 17 ] but lower than findings reported from elsewhere in Africa, viz . Nigeria (82%) [ 18 ], Ethiopia (56%) [ 19 ], Rwanda (56%) [ 20 ], Kenya (67%) [ 21 ], and Tanzania (96%) [ 16 ]. Our findings suggested that the lack of adequate knowledge could be attributed to most of the participants having a good general knowledge of rabies, but lacking the comprehensive knowledge required to be truly knowledgeable about the disease and its prevention or control.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards rabies: A survey of the general population residing in the Harare Metropolitan Province of Zimbabwe

Spargo¹,

Coetzer

Makuvadze

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Rabies remains endemic to the Harare Metropolitan Province of Zimbabwe, with a lack of public participations potentially contributing to the limited success in eliminating the disease. We hypothesized that rabies intervention campaigns were less successful than they could be as a result of poor understanding of the disease at the community level, and thus aimed to identify the knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards rabies in the province. Methods A cross-sectional survey, using a semi-structured questionnaire, was implemented between January 2017 and June 2018 across the province and data were collected from 798 respondents. Frequency distributions and logistic regressions were undertaken to determine the factors associated with the adequacy of the prevailing rabies knowledge, pet ownership characteristics and the existing preventative practices. Results The results of our study suggested that the majority of the respondents (92%) had heard of rabies. However, the level of rabies knowledge could be classified as “adequate” in only 36% of respondents. The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that pet ownership and type of occupation were statistically associated with a better understanding and knowledge of the disease. Off all the respondents, 49% owned at least one dog or cat and suburb density and occupation were statistically associated with owning a pet. Amongst the pet owners, 57% consulted an animal health practitioner at least once a year and 75% were aware of a rabies vaccine for their pets. The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that age, education and gender were statistically associated with pet owners taking their pet(s) to an animal clinic. Conclusion This study showed that the majority of the respondents lacked comprehensive knowledge about rabies, with the knowledge pertaining to health seeking behaviour and the importance of rabies vaccination being the most lacking. Additional public education relying on key messages, aimed at the different target audiences, is required in the province.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards rabies: A survey of the general population residing in the Harare Metropolitan Province of Zimbabwe

Spargo¹,

Coetzer

Makuvadze

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A study was done in Ethiopia by Hagos et al . [ 16 ] reveals 87% of the participants had heard about rabies and 74.2% knows that rabies affects all warm-blooded animals including human and 60.3% knows the appropriate first aid for an animal bite which was high compared to our findings but knowledge regarding fatality (45.7%) and presence of vaccine for rabies (69.8%) is low. Attitude towards the application of indigenous material over the site of the bite (Holly water- 49.8%) was high and the practice of visiting health institution/doctor (77.5) was similar to our study findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 51%

knowledge, attitude, and practice study on animal bite, rabies, and its prevention in an urban community

Sivagurunathan

Umadevi

Arumugam

et al. 2021

Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Rabies is a neglected zoonotic tropical disease that usually affects the poorest communities. Rabies is 100% fatal and at the same time 100% preventable. A huge proportion of death due to rabies occurs in Asia and Africa, and India is reported to have the highest incidence of rabies. Aims: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice related to animal bites, rabies, and its prevention and utilization of health services for this purpose in the study population. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study done in an urban area among the age group 20 and above of both gender to assess and statistically highlight the knowledge, attitude, and practice related to animal bites, rabies, and its prevention and utilization of health services for this purpose in the study population. The sample size was estimated to be 350 and a simple random sampling technique was used for the selection of samples. Results: About 76% had heard about rabies. Among them only 63.5% knew it is a fatal disease, only 37.6% knew animals other than dogs can also cause rabies, only 37.3% of the study participants knew about appropriate first aid. Only 37.5% of the animal bite victims washed their wound with soap and running water and 35% had a full course of vaccination. Education had been an important factor that created a significant difference in the knowledge level of the participants. Conclusions: Improved community awareness, forestalling animal rabies, and better access to affordable and potent human rabies vaccines are essential for the elimination of human rabies.

show abstract

“…This proportion is higher than findings obtained in Senegal (22.4%) which was evaluated by Hagos et al . [ 15 ] and Niang et al . [ 16 ], but is lower than findings obtained in Tanzania by Sambo et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of students at the University of Abomey-Calavi on rabies in Benin Republic, West Africa

Sessou

Noudeke

Thomson³

et al. 2021

Pan Afr Med J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral zoonotic disease. Once clinical symptoms appear, rabies is fatal in almost 100% of cases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of students at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin on rabies in order to explore the factors that promote the occurrence of this zoonosis. Methods for this purpose, a descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 263 randomly-selected students. The collected data were analyzed by R software with logistic regression. Results out of all the 263 respondents, 53.2% (n=140) of the students claimed to have heard of canine rabies, compared to 47.5% (n=125) for human rabies. Stray dogs were recognized by 49.0% (n=129) as a prevailing source of rabies infection in people; bites from these dogs were considered as a means of rabies contagion (41.4%; n=109) and vaccination of dogs was considered by 32.7% (n=86) as a means of rabies control in both people and dogs. In case of a dog bite, 60.5% (n=159) of respondents would visit a western medicine human clinic first. For the fate of the biting dog, 18.6% (n=49) and 27.4% (n=72) of respondents, respectively, prefer to euthanize the dog or take the dog to the veterinarian for observation. Regarding the perceived consequences of inaction after a dog bite, 58.2% (n=140) mentioned the risk of rabies. Students in human or animal health were 3 times more aware on rabies. Conclusion this study identifies the gaps in students´ knowledge, attitudes and practices about effective rabies prevention and control. It will therefore be necessary to intensify awareness and education campaigns among students who could be a good relay of information to other members in their communities.

show abstract

Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice towards rabies and associated factors among household heads in Mekelle city, Ethiopia

Cited by 44 publications

References 16 publications

Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards rabies: A survey of the general population residing in the Harare Metropolitan Province of Zimbabwe

Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards rabies: A survey of the general population residing in the Harare Metropolitan Province of Zimbabwe

knowledge, attitude, and practice study on animal bite, rabies, and its prevention in an urban community

Evaluation of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of students at the University of Abomey-Calavi on rabies in Benin Republic, West Africa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About