Abstract:
Background: Rabies is an acute viral encephalomyelitis caused by RNA Lyssavirus in virtually all the warm blooded animals including man. Dogs are the main host and transmitter of rabies in India. The disease is almost hundred percent fatal; however, by timely Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), it can be easily prevented after the bite of an infected dog or other animal. The present study aims to assess the profile of dog bite cases reporting to Anti rabies Clinic (ARC) in Rural Health Training Centre of a Tertiary care Institute and their socio demographic correlates.
Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted for a period of 6 months in Rural Health Training Centre of Department of Community Medicine, SKIMS, Kashmir. All the dogbite cases (170 cases) reporting to the ARC during this period were taken up for the study. Data was collected on a standard proforma – (National guidelines on Rabies Prophylaxis -2015) issued by National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Results: In this study 71.8% of study subjects were males, 45.3 % were of school going age (5 to 19 years), 50.6 % were students and 42.4 % belonged to lower socioeconomic class. Also 76.5 % of study subjects had category II bite, 97 % reported to ARC within 24 hours of bite exposure and 93.5 % of dog bite victims who reported to ARC were managed as per recommended WHO Guidelines for that particular category of bite.
Conclusions: Despite the fact that the health seeking behaviour and treatment received by dog bite victims in this study were favourable, the menace of dog bite still poses to be a public health problem and measures to prevent the same need to be taken and timely policy decisions regarding this menace need to be made to curb this menace and, hence, control it.
