ABSTRACT
Background: Rabies is a fatal but preventable disease. Around the world, awareness studies about rabies have been widely used to understand the disease and in its preventive measures. Objectives: The present study was conducted to assess the awareness of rabies as a disease, its transmission, and prevention among the general population and also to assess the perceived health risks associated with exposure to animals. Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken across seven representative states in India between July and November 2017. Multistage sampling methodology was followed to select 1012 households as the primary sampling unit, and one adult responsible respondent from each household was interviewed as study participants. Results: Six hundred and eleven (60.4%) participants had heard of rabies. Only 0.2% had extensive knowledge of rabies. Majority (440, 72.0%) of the participants considered rabies as a fatal disease; 77.3% opined that risk of rabies from dogs was high compared to 41.6% who believed that there was little or no risk of rabies from cats. Only 37 (3.7%) participants were aware about preexposure prophylaxis. Conclusion: The awareness on rabies and its prevention in the study population was not satisfactory.
ABSTRACT
A coverage evaluation survey was conducted in Mandya and Koppal districts of Karnataka state following the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccination campaign. The purposes of the survey were to assess coverage of children in target age group by JE vaccination and to assess adverse events following immunisation against JE, the knowledge of health care providers and community about JE & mass vaccination for JE. The study design consisted of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative data was used to know the coverage levels for children. The qualitative data collected through interviews of head of the family in the sample households, selected health care workers using a structured pretested questionnaire. The standard cluster sampling method was used for selecting the sample of children to be evaluated. In Mandya district the evaluation showed 92 % coverage in the selected sample of 313 children against the reported 83.85 %. In Koppal district the evaluation showed 70 % coverage, among the selected sample of 251 children, against the reported coverage of 69.8 %. The incidence of adverse events was 4% in Mandya sample and 6.37 % in Koppal sample. In Mandya district, about 42 % of households had knowledge of JE. About 68 % of households had prior knowledge of the immunization day. In Koppal district, the survey has revealed that only 19.85 % of the heads of household had the knowledge of JE and 48.53% had the knowledge of JE vaccination before the day of vaccination campaign.