Knowledge of Rabies and its case management practice among healthcare workers in Sokoto metropolis

 ABSTRACT

Introduction: Rabies is an acute viral infection of the central nervous system, it is a vaccine preventable, zoonotic disease that once clinical symptoms appear, it is almost always fatal. It is also known as hydrophobia because of its ability to cause sensitivity to water. Rabies is caused by a neutrophilic bullet-shaped, enveloped RNA virus of the genus Lyssavirus from Rhabdoviridae family. The virus is usually transmitted to human from bite of rabid animal. In up to 99% of cases, domestic dogs are responsible for rabies transmission to humans. ((1) The study aimed to assess comprehensive knowledge and case management practices of rabies infection among health care workers in Sokoto metropolis.

Materials and methods: A cross sectional hospital-based analytic study was conducted among 114 health care workers within Sokoto metropolis, respondents were selected by simple random sampling technique. Data was collected with a set of pre-tested self-administered, semi￾structured questionnaire.

Results: The study was able to demonstrate that the health care workers had good knowledge of the clinical features of rabies 76.6(68.2%), good knowledge of transmission of rabies 77(68.1%), good knowledge of prevention of rabies using postexposure prophylaxis 102(89.5%), good knowledge of case management practice of rabies 95(83.3%) however they had poor knowledge of pre-exposure prophylaxis of rabies 80(70).

Conclusion and recommendations: Healthcare workers within Sokoto metropolis had good knowledge of rabies and its case management. The study was able to demonstrate that there is significant association between knowledge of rabies and previous training on rabies (P=0.03). 

There is need for training and retraining of healthcare workers by the health management team of the hospital, government and other concerned non-governmental organizations, provision of rabies vaccine and rabies immunoglobulin, and ensuring that all pets capable of transmitting Rabies are vaccinated by the government.

Keywords: Knowledge, Rabies, Case, Management, Practice, Healthcare, Workers, Sokoto, Metropolis.

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