Noncompliance of the postexposure prophylactic vaccination following animal bites reporting to a rural primary health center

Context: Man lives in close harmony with animals and so the chances of injuries and diseases contracted from them. Effective preventive measure such as vaccination is to be ensured following harmful bites resulting in Rabies. Aim: The aim is to assess the proportion of rabid animal bite cases and non-compliance of post exposure prophylaxis vaccination following bites, reporting to a rural primary health care centre. Setting and Design: This is a retrospective cross sectional study from records of animal bite cases attending a rural primary health centre from January 2017 to December 2017. Materials and Methods: A pre-designed case record form was used to estimate the proportion of animal bite cases leading to Rabies and Non-compliance of post exposure prophylaxis attending the health centre. Statistical Analysis: Data analysis was done in SPSS 2016. Chi square was used to find the significance. Results: Around 448 animal bites were found over a span of one year, out of which 222 (49.5%) were found to be rabid animal bites. 46.65% (209) were dog bites and 2.9% (13) were cat bites. Statistical significance (P < 0.05) was seen between age and compliance of vaccination following dog bites. 1.14% of the study subjects who had completed the 5 dose post prophylaxis vaccination belonged to the elderly age group. Among the cat bite cases, 2 of the study subjects had received 1 dose of PEP with anti-rabies vaccine. Conclusion: Only 1.14% of the study subjects had taken the complete dose of PEP. This suggests the lack of awareness among public and lack of services and supervision for rabid animal bites in rural areas. It is the duty of every physician to counsel people, co-ordinate with veterinary physician and maintain proper records so as to ensure completion of PEP to prevent rabies related deaths in humans.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-SA

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