Health seeking behaviours of individuals exposed to animals

Abstract

Background: India is a rabies endemic country, where animal bites to humans are a major public health problem and an estimated 17.4 million animal bites occur annually. It is more common in urban poor locality, since there is a combination of large human and dog populations in congested habitable areas. Seeking timely and correct post exposure prophylaxis by the exposed victims is important to prevent rabies.  Objectives: 1. To know the characteristics of animal exposures. 2. To determine the post exposure prophylaxis seeking behaviour of individuals exposed to animals. Methodology: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in urban poor locality of Tumkur District, Karnataka. The study subjects were interviewed using a pretested, semi-structured proforma to collect information regarding any history of animal exposures in last one year; if there were any animal exposures, a detailed history regarding the post exposure prophylaxis seeking behaviour was obtained.   Results: A total of 11,289 individuals were surveyed, among whom 128 animal bite cases were reported giving the prevalence of 1.13%. In all the 128 cases, the biting animal was dog and 86.2% of them were unprovoked bites. The common bite injuries were abrasions (59.4%)) and were mainly on the limbs (97.6%); 52.4% of them were category III exposures. Among the exposed, 96.1% sought help from the medical doctor, among whom 61.7% from government health care facility. Conclusion: The post exposure prophylaxis seeking behaviour has to be further improved; since early and correct post exposure prophylaxis is necessary to prevent rabies.