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

Kaba, Tamirat; Lemma, Alemayehu; Mulualem, Tesfaye

doi:10.15744/2348-9790.4.204

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Similar to other African countries, children under 15 years are the main victims of rabies, but are not aware of preventive actions following bite contacts with rabies-suspect dogs [27,28]. The majority of victims seek help from traditional healers rather than health treatment centres [29,30] and suspect rabid dogs are destroyed without quarantine [31][32][33] or no relevant samples are submitted for laboratory confirmation. In Tanzania for example, bite management centres have been set up and have significantly improved the surveillance of rabies in dogs [34,35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, attitudes, practices (KAP) and control of rabies among community households and health practitioners at the human-wildlife interface in Limpopo National Park, Massingir District, Mozambique

et al. 2022

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Background Rabies is a viral zoonotic disease that kills more than 26,000 people each year in Africa. In Mozambique, poverty and inadequate surveillance result in gross underreporting and ineffective control of the disease in animals and people. Little is known of the role of human attitudes and behaviour in prevention or control of rabies, thus this study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices amongst selected households and health practitioners in one affected area, the Limpopo National Park (LNP), Massingir district. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted among 233 households in eight villages in LNP and among 42 health practitioners from eight health facilities in Massingir district between 2016 and 2018. Consenting household representatives aged 18 years or over were purposively selected. A KAP survey was administered to obtain information on dog ownership and knowledge of rabies, host species affected, modes of transmission, symptoms, recommended treatment and preventive methods. Similar to household study participants, health practitioners were purposively selected and completed the questionnaire during the investigators’ visit. The questionnaire sought information on knowledge of rabies, management of bite wounds, vaccination sites and schedules of pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. Descriptive and inferential data analyses were performed using SPSS software version 18.0. Results Approximately twenty per cent (18.9%; 95% CI: 14.3–24.3) and 13.3% (95% CI: 9.4–18.1) of households had good knowledge and practices of rabies, respectively. For health practitioners, only 16.7% (95% CI: 7.5–31.9) had good knowledge, whilst 33.3% (95% CI: 20.0–49.7) adopted adequate attitudes/practices towards the disease. Conclusions/Significance In conclusion, both households and health practitioners displayed poor levels of knowledge and adopted bad attitudes and practices towards rabies. The former, had more gaps in their attitudes and practices towards the disease. Village location and education level (P < .05) and similarly, sex and occupation, were found to be statistically associated with good knowledge of rabies among households as compared to HPs. Overall, a lack of community-based education and professional retraining courses contribute significantly to poor awareness of rabies in the LNP of Mozambique. Enhancing public health knowledge should consequently reduce dog-mediated human rabies deaths in this country.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, attitudes, practices (KAP) and control of rabies among community households and health practitioners at the human-wildlife interface in Limpopo National Park, Massingir District, Mozambique

et al. 2022

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“…The results are a matter of concern since about one fifth of respondents in our study still believe in traditional healers and opt to seek their help when bitten by rabid or rabid suspected animals. However, reliance on traditional healers was also found in studies conducted elsewhere [19,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. Traditional methods of treating rabid or rabies suspected cases are not scientifically proven and not recommended and people should be cautioned of this.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Households’ Practices towards Rabies Prevention and Control in Rural Nepal

Dhakal

Ghimire

Regmi

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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Rabies is a vaccine-preventable, zoonotic, viral disease and a major public health concern for developing countries such as Nepal. A study was conducted from October–December 2021 among 308 household heads from three districts in Nepal (Siraha, Parsa, and Nawalparasi West) through an in-person interview to examine the rural people’s practices towards rabies. Of 70 respondents owning pet animals, 82.9% vaccinated them against rabies but 87.9% (51/58) of them kept a vaccination record. Nearly all respondents (99.7%, 307/308) said they would visit hospitals after being bitten by rabid or rabies suspected animals, and 18.2% (56/308) of them said they would also opt to visit traditional healers seeking treatment against rabies. Seven in ten respondents knew that they should wash bitten body area with soap and water. Around 60% (184/308) of respondents said they would not bother to notify or report to the local authorities if they saw someone bitten by a presumed rabid dog or observed animal behavior suggestive of rabies. The Chi-square test showed a significant association between the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents with practices (good practice and poor practice) towards rabies. The study findings suggest that rural people in Nepal need to be educated with applied rabies control and prevention practices and made aware of health seeking behavior and the role that a community members have to play to control, prevent, and eradicate rabies.

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

Cited by 2 publications

References 28 publications

Knowledge, attitudes, practices (KAP) and control of rabies among community households and health practitioners at the human-wildlife interface in Limpopo National Park, Massingir District, Mozambique

Knowledge, attitudes, practices (KAP) and control of rabies among community households and health practitioners at the human-wildlife interface in Limpopo National Park, Massingir District, Mozambique

Households’ Practices towards Rabies Prevention and Control in Rural Nepal

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