Knowledge, attitude and practices about rabies management among human and animal health professionals in Mbale District,
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One Health Outlook
RESEARCH
Open Access
Knowledge, attitude and practices about rabies management among human and animal health professionals in Mbale District, Uganda Fred Monje1, Joseph Erume2, Frank N. Mwiine2, Herbert Kazoora3 and Samuel George Okech2*
Abstract Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of animal and human health professionals towards rabies management and also to establish the level of relationship between KAP. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2012 and March 2013 among 147 randomly selected animal and human health professionals in Mbale District. Of these, only 16 were animal health professionals. Quantitative data was obtained using a semi-structured questionnaire while qualitative data was obtained from 4 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and 2 Key Informant (KI) interviews. Quantitative data was entered into EpiInfo version 3.5.1 and proportions computed while qualitative data was summarised into themes and subthemes resulting from content analysis of interview scripts. Findings: Of all the respondents, only 44% (65/147) had sufficient knowledge about rabies while 25% (37/147) had positive attitude towards rabies management. A half of the respondents (50%, 73/147) had limited good practices. Respondents knowledgeable about rabies were more likely to have positive attitude towards rabies management (OR = 3.65; 95% CI: 1.60–8.3) while respondents with positive attitudes, were more likely to have good practices towards rabies management (OR: 2.22; 95% CI: 1.01–4.86). Conclusion: Respondents had low knowledge, negative attitude and limited good practices of rabies management. Regular refresher trainings about rabies to broaden staff knowledge and improve their attitudes and hence practices of rabies management should be conducted by the District leaders. Harnessing multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary collaborative efforts (“One Health” approach) for rabies control should be instituted to reduce the incidence of the disease in the District. Keywords: Rabies, Knowledge, Attitude, Professionals, Human-health, Animal-health, Zoonosis, One health, Uganda
Background Rabies is a major zoonotic disease threatening global public health [1] and causes about 55,000 human deaths annually [2] with Asia being the worst affected, followed by Africa [3–5]. Though it is a global concern, rabies is frequently under-reported in developing countries [6] * Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] 2 College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (COVAB), Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
and has therefore become an important neglected disease [7]. The probable reasons for rabies being neglected is under-reporting and the nature of deaths that are scattered and never match the kind of crises that get other infectious and non-infectious disease epidemics the comparatively high level of national and global attention [8]. Consequently, the dise
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