Knowledge, Attitude and Practices

about Animal Bites and Rabies among

medical students.

Dr. Aparna PadhyeGSVM Medical College

Kanpur

Background• Rabies is an acute highly fatal disease affecting the central nervous system, ultimately causing disease in the brain and death.

•The early symptoms of rabies in people are similar to that of many other illnesses, including fever, headache, and general weakness or discomfort.

•As the disease progresses, more specific symptoms appear and may include insomnia, anxiety, confusion, paralysis, excitation, hallucinations, agitation, hypersalivation, difficulty swallowing, and hydrophobia.

•Death usually occurs within days of the onset of these symptoms.

• It is a preventable viral disease of mammals, caused by Lyssavirus, most often transmitted through the bite of rabid animals such as dogs, cats and jackals.

• Given the high case fatality rate, awareness regarding rabies is of prime importance.

Objectives

• To assess the knowledge regarding epidemiology, prevention and control of rabies among medical students in different years of medical education and training.

• To study the practices of medical students after dog bite.

Material and methods

•A cross-sectional study was conducted among 817 MBBS students, from first year to final year, of GSVM Medical College Kanpur.

•A pre-tested questionnaire was used.

•Data was analysed using Instat and chi square test for trend was applied.

•Results were interpreted at 5% level of significance.

Results

20%

40%

40%

1st prof2nd prof3rd prof

NO. OF STUDENTS IN THE STUDY (N=817)

Overall analysis showed:About 80% subjects knew that rabies is caused by a virus.100% knew dog bite as main source of transmission and only 60% knew about transmission by other animals.

Hydrophobia as a symptom was known to all subjects(99.5%) but prodromal symptoms(34.2%), perspiration/excessive salivation(37%),muscle spasms(66.3%) and aerophobia(61%). It was comparatively less commonly known.

Almost everyone knew that the disease is nearly always fatal(99%).

After dog bite, 90.3% subjects got vaccinated whereas only 77% got immediate wound toilet done.

causative agent as a virus

transmission by dog bite

transmission by other animals

transmission by licks on wounded skin

fatality rate as 100%

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

63.2

100

32

6

98.16

68.7

100

37.11

23.6

98.46

98.5

100

97.25

96.34

100

3rd prof2nd prof 1st prof

p<0.001

Knowledge regarding epidemiology of rabies among medical students

Non specific symptoms like fever, headache, malaise and

weakness

Perspiration, lacrimation and excessive salivation

Muscle spasms

Aerophobia

Hydrophobia

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

8

9

27

16

98.16

13.8

10

43

47

99

67.37

76

95.4

97.5

100 3RD PROF2ND PROF1ST PROF

Knowledge about symptoms of Rabies

Knowledge about disease prevention and control among medical students

importance of vaccination of pets

availibilty of free vaccine in district hosp

post exposure vaccination

wound toilet

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

47.2

8

97.5

52

44

16.6

97.8

64.7

76.5

47.5

99.1

91.5

3RD PROF2ND PROF1ST PROF

Contd.

id dose

im dose

id vaccination schedule

im vaccination schedule

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

2

3

15.3

23

29.1

30

37.4

43.8

93

93

96

97.3

3rd Prof2nd Prof1st Prof

Contd.

Booster after 90 days

Reporting to the municipal authorities

immediate vaccination

Wound toilet

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90100

61

22

94

55

58.3

31

86

66

91

57

92

92

3RD PROF2ND PROF1ST PROF

Practices following dog-bite in a sub-sample of the study population

Conclusions The study showed that the level of awareness of rabies and its control measures was higher among the 3rd professional students as compared to those in 1st and 2nd professionals.

An increasing trend in the knowledge was observed with increasing years of medical education.

Yet the knowledge about wound toilet, vaccination schedule and doses and reporting to municipal authorities was significantly low.

Recommendations This suggests that overall knowledge about rabies is good.However, the students in the 1st year, who are coming from the general population, have lesser awareness.

This signifies that there should be efforts to increase the awareness about rabies through inculcating it in the curriculum of the students studying in high school and intermediate.

This will help to spread the knowledge in the society which will in turn help to reduce morbidity and mortality of such a common yet serious disease.

THANK YOU