A Study to assess the knowledge and attitude about dog bite and the disease rabies among dog catchers of Bangalore city- A cross sectional study.
Keywords:
Rabies, Dog catchers, veterinarians, High risk profession.Abstract
Background: Rabies, a deadly viral zoonotic disease caused by animal bite contributes to around 30,000 deaths in India annually. Veterinarians, dog-handlers, dog-catchers are some of the high risk professions for contracting the rabies disease. Hence proper knowledge about dog bite and the disease plays a significant role in prevention of rabies. Therefore, our study aims to assess the knowledge and attitude about Dog bite and the knowledge about the Rabies among dog catchers.
Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in the month of April 2016 wherein 30 dog catchers employed in the NGO’s of Bangalore city were included in the study. Data was collected using pre-structured questionnaire by interview method.
Results: Awareness about Rabies was 100%. Most of the study subjects were in the age group of 21-25 years accounting for 33.3% (10). 73.3% believed rabies was due to bite of animal and 16.7% due to scratch where 10% believed due to both. 86.7% (26) of the study subjects believed that rabies can be caused by dog bite only whereas remaining 13.3% (4) of the study subjects stated that it can be due to bite of all warm blooded mammals. Among the 30 study subjects, 20 (66.7%) had knowledge that rabies is preventable.
Conclusion: There is a need to create awareness that rabies is a preventable disease by pre-exposure prophylaxis and importance of various modalities used in its prevention following dog bite.
