Profile, knowledge about rabies and practice among animal bite patients in an urban health centre in Andhra Pradesh: a cross-sectional study

Background: Awareness and knowledge about the management of animal injuries are insufficient among general public. Various traditional practices and myths have also been reported. To estimate the Prevalence of unprovoked bites and profile of animal bites in terms of type of animal, nature, category of exposure and associated factors among the patients with animal bite presenting to UHTC, Mangalagiri and to find the Knowledge about Rabies and practice of animal bite management among study population. Methods: Expecting a 64.3% prevalence of unprovoked bites from a previous study, a minimum of 96 subjects had to be studied. Bite resulting due to individual initiating interaction with the animal, like playing, annoying or pelting stones at animal was classified as provoked bite. The categorical variables of epidemiological profile were expressed as Frequencies and proportions. Results: Among 113 participants, 69% were males and 31% were females. The prevalence of unprovoked bites was 90.3%. Majority (92.9%) were dog bites and 70.8% were due to stray animals. 44.6% were category 3 exposure, 42.9% were category 2 exposure, where lower limbs (64.6%) were most affected followed by upper limbs (31.9%). Only 44.2% washed the site with soap in running water, 41.7% applied turmeric and other substances over the site and only 39.8% knew that untreated bite might cause rabies. There were gender and age-based differences in the proportions of nature of the bite, knowledge and practices but most of these differences were not statistically significant in this study. Conclusions: The knowledge about rabies and animal bite management is not adequate. Periodic health education and behaviour change strategies must be conducted.