Study on knowledge, attitude and dog ownership patterns related to rabies prevention and control in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted from May 2003 to August 2003 in Addis Ababa with the objective of understanding the distribution of stray and owned dogs, dog ownership patterns and attitudes of people towards rabies and its prevention and control methods. A total of 2390 households were selected from 6 Sub Cities of Addis Ababa using stratified random sampling and were interviewed using structured questionnaires. From the total households interviewed, 969 (40.5%) of them were known to own one or more dogs, and the total number of owned dogs was estimated to be 225,078. Male dogs make up 1042 (78.4%) of the total owned dogs. Almost half of all the dogs 463 (47.8%) were tied only for some time during the day whereas 320 (33.1%) of the dogs were not tied at all and freely move from place to place and contribute to high dog bites in human beings and for the widespread occurrence of canine rabies in Addis Ababa. Six hundred fifty five (67.6%) of the interviewed households who owned dogs had a well fenced house. Most of the owned dogs 856 (88.4%) get their food from their owners and only 321 (33.3%) of the owners reported that they let their dogs to be vaccinated while the majority of the owners 644 (66.5%) do not let their dogs vaccinated regularly. A significant proportion of the interviewed households 2,323 (97.2%), (P < 0.05) indicated that they have the knowledge that dogs, cats and other animals can transmit rabies to humans and 1,752 (73.4%) of the households replied that rabies can be transmitted through

A Study About Perception of People Regarding Animal Bite in Urban Area of Dehradun

“…In our study, 83.9%% people knew that the transmission was due to animal bite, which is more than the study done by Lai, et al 5 In their study, 61.1% transmission is by animal bite. In our study transmission by sneezing is 10.9%, which is similar to 12% as in Lai et al study.…”

“…Among the total females (66) about 83.3% said that rabies were transmitted by animal bite, 12.2% by sneezing and 3% does not know the exact mode of transmission and this relation between mode of transmission and sex is found to be statistically insignificant, whereas in a study by Lai P, et al 5 out of total males (98) 56.1% said that rabies was transmitted through animal bite, 9.2% by sneezing and 34.7% did not know about the transmission. Out of total females (28) 78.6% told animal bite, 10.7% sneezing and 10.7% did not know about mode of transmission and this relation was significant.…”

“…In a study done by Prakash et al 6 in response to the question on transmission of rabies by bite of animals other than dog, 17% responded for cat and 12% monkey. In a study by Eshetu Yimer, et al 5 a significant proportion of the interviewed households 2,323 (97.2%), (P <0.05) indicated that they have the knowledge that dogs, cats and other animals can transmit rabies to humans.…”

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) about Rabies Prevention and Control: A Community Survey in Tanzania

“…In Swaziland, for instance, KAP surveys were used to investigate local communities' understanding of malaria transmission, recognition of symptoms, perceptions of causes, treatment-seeking patterns, and preventive measures and practices in order to provide baseline data for a national malaria control programme [20] . KAP surveys have also been applied to the study of rabies [17] , [21] – [24] . However, before the research described herewith, no such studies had been conducted in Tanzania.…”

Community Perception towards Traditional Healers and Health Centers on Management of Dog Bites and its Relation with Veterinary Public Health Activities

“…Ali Abraham et al reported 58.3% participants of the study had strong belief on traditional medicine, in Ethiopia [26]. Some consistence studies also reported all victims had attempted traditional medicine after exposure to bite, and they finally visited health centers when the traditional methods failed and clinical sings appeared [23,29]. Very high number of dog bite victims (90%) that received treatment by traditional healers in Bangladesh [30] was also other consistence report.…”