Outcomes of a school-based intervention on rabies prevention among school children in rural Sri Lanka

Kanda, Koji; Obayashi, Yoshi; Jayasinghe, Amila; Gunawardena, G. S. Panduka De S.; Delpitiya, N.Y.; Priyadarshani, N.G.W.; Gamage, Chandika D.; Arai, Asuna; Tamashiro, Hiko

doi:10.1093/inthealth/ihu098

Cited by 25 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Introducing syllabi regarding rabies and appropriate wound management in school may be a cost-effective way of raising awareness against this deadly disease. Countries like Sri Lanka,[ 28 ] Malawi,[ 29 ] Indonesia,[ 30 ] and the Philippines[ 31 ] have incorporated rabies awareness in their school curricula to boost their rabies control efforts and have found good results. The incorporation of rabies education into school curricula is not simply a one-time educational event, but rather a sustained effort as information becomes disseminated throughout countries and regions each year without need for recurrent monetary resources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A cross-sectional study of awareness and practices regarding animal bites in rural community, North India

Singh

Mahajan

Dahiya

2020

J Family Med Prim Care

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Introduction: Repeated epidemiological studies to monitor trends of knowledge and practices are needed to guide strategies to control rabies. We conducted a study to assess the current knowledge, attitudes, and practices in relation to animal bites in the rural area of north India. Methods: House to house survey to collect data on animal bites was conducted among 300 households (assuming awareness regarding animal bites to be 25%, precision 95%, and power of 80%) from the rural area of Punjab, north India. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire comprising of items that explored sociodemographic details (age, educational qualification, occupation, socioeconomic status (assessed through Udai Pareek scale), and awareness regarding rabies, knowledge about first aid, attitude, and practices regarding anti-rabies vaccination (ARV) was used. Detailed questions were asked to those who owned pets. Results: A total of 300 households were included in the analysis. Among all respondents, 30.4% (117) had an episode of animal bite in their family giving a bite incidence rate of 78/1000 population. Bites were more frequent in males (65.8%, n = 77). The commonest site of the bite was lower limb (65%) followed by upper limb (21.4%), and head and neck (5.1%). The participants said that bites by pet animals (47%) are more common than those by stray animals (35.9%), followed by wild animals (12.8%). Almost 91% of respondents told that they would prefer govt. hospital for the treatment. Class I bite was most common (88.9%) followed by class II (8.5%) and class III (1.7%). A lot of respondents (41.4%) did not know about the symptoms of rabies in humans. Only 17.5% knew the appropriate wound care. Inappropriate practices like applying chilly (48.8%), lime (13.1%), tying the limb above the wound (5.1%), and others were common. Only 15.5% washed their wound with soap and water. Most of those who were bitten received post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) (80%). Most of the respondents (98.3%) had heard about ARV but didn’t know about the site of injection. Almost everyone (99.35) said that no awareness camps/programs had been conducted in their villages/school/health center to date. Conclusion: There is a high incidence of animal bites in rural areas. Awareness regarding the need for rabies vaccine of animals and PEP after an animal bite is quite high and is practiced. However, there is a lack of awareness regarding the course of action to be followed when an animal does develop rabies. Traditional and inappropriate practices of wound management persist and need to be countered. Improving the availability of ARV and rabies immunoglobulin through the public health system may further augment the uptake of PEP and completion of treatment while at the same time reducing out of pocket expenditure and the overall economic cost of rabies. Solid waste management in rural areas along with oral ARV is likely to reduce the...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A cross-sectional study of awareness and practices regarding animal bites in rural community, North India

Singh

Mahajan

Dahiya

2020

J Family Med Prim Care

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“…La frecuencia de mordeduras de perros, gatos y roedores es similar a la de otros estudios realizados en Chile y el extranjero 1,3,4,7,[17][18][19] . Gómez, Méndez y Kandaa señalan que las mordeduras ocurren en el entorno familiar, situación que sólo se presentó en la comuna de San Esteban [25][26][27][28] . Debido a que los animales propios y conocidos causaron la mayor frecuencia de mordeduras, es de importancia valorar las características y el tipo de mascotas que cada familia decide adquirir y a la estrategia de educación que debe orientar el médico veterinario tratante para proteger la salud animal y humana.…”

Section: Artículo Originalunclassified

Caracterización epidemiológica de mordeduras en personas, según registro de atención de urgencia: Provincia de Los Andes, Chile

Villagra

Cáceres

Alvarado

et al. 2017

Rev. chil. infectol.

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“…Whilst many governments and NGOs advocate the integration of education components in rabies elimination programmes [ 6 ], few have published studies documenting the effectiveness of their interventions [ 7 – 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A rabies lesson improves rabies knowledge amongst primary school children in Zomba, Malawi

Bailey¹,

Gamble²,

Gibson

et al. 2018

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

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Rabies is an important neglected disease, which kills around 59,000 people a year. Over a third of these deaths are in children less than 15 years of age. Almost all human rabies deaths in Africa and Asia are due to bites from infected dogs. Despite the high efficacy of current rabies vaccines, awareness about rabies preventive healthcare is often low in endemic areas. It is therefore common for educational initiatives to be conducted in conjunction with other rabies control activities such as mass dog vaccination, however there are few examples where the efficacy of education activities has been assessed. Here, primary school children in Zomba, Malawi, were given a lesson on rabies biology and preventive healthcare. Subsequently, a mass dog vaccination programme was delivered in the same region. Knowledge and attitudes towards rabies were assessed by a questionnaire before the lesson, immediately after the lesson and 9 weeks later to assess the impact the lesson had on school children’s knowledge and attitudes. This assessment was also undertaken in children who were exposed to the mass dog vaccination programme but did not receive the lesson. Knowledge of rabies and how to be safe around dogs increased following the lesson (both p<0.001), and knowledge remained higher than baseline 9 weeks after the lesson (both p<0.001). Knowledge of rabies and how to be safe around dogs was greater amongst school children who had received the lesson compared to school children who had not received the lesson, but had been exposed to a rabies vaccination campaign in their community (both p<0.001) indicating that the lesson itself was critical in improving knowledge. In summary, we have shown that a short, focused classroom-based lesson on rabies can improve short and medium-term rabies knowledge and attitudes of Malawian schoolchildren.

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Outcomes of a school-based intervention on rabies prevention among school children in rural Sri Lanka

Cited by 25 publications

References 9 publications

A cross-sectional study of awareness and practices regarding animal bites in rural community, North India

A cross-sectional study of awareness and practices regarding animal bites in rural community, North India

Caracterización epidemiológica de mordeduras en personas, según registro de atención de urgencia: Provincia de Los Andes, Chile

A rabies lesson improves rabies knowledge amongst primary school children in Zomba, Malawi

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