Prevalence of Rabies Prophylaxis among Medical Officers: A Cross Sectional Study

This chapter discusses about knowledge, attitude and practices related to animal bite transmitting rabies, amongst medical officer practicing in rural areas of western Maharashtra, India. Rabies is a zoonosis disease caused by a virus in the family Rhabdoviridae, genus Lyssavirus, known as rabies virus (RV). Rabies is an acute neurological infection in humans and other mammals, where dogs transmit 99% of human infection.

One of the important requirements to achieve “Zero Human rabies deaths by 2030” is to build awareness of the PEP and care for exposed victims.

This is cross-sectional study conducted with 95 medical officers. In relation to the training sessions that were held and the participants' knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) on rabies prophylaxis, a pretested and organized questionnaire was created. Microsoft Excel 16 was used for data entry and analysis. Calculations of percentages and the relevant statistical tests were performed. The result revealed that majority of the participants 91 (95.8%) had positive attitude towards conducting health education campaign, 89 (93.7%) participants were positive towards counselling of the patients and 78 (82.10%) acceptance for intradermal schedule for postexposure prophylaxis. Whereas less than half of the participants i.e 45 (47.40%) were willing to administer injection equine antirabies serum at their setup.

All patients were referred to tertiary care centre for administration of ARS and 82.10% of participants referred the patients immediately.

There was an apparent lack of awareness seen in rabies prophalaxis and management. Effort should be taken to emphasize the importance PEP management through regular reorientation programs. The effort should be taken to emphasize the importance PEP management through regular reorientation programs and continued medical education amongst them.