Factors Associated with the Occurrence of Human Rabies Cases in Mali, 2018-2022

Introduction : Rabies is transmitted by the saliva of infected animals on excoriated skin or mucous membranes. Data from the epidemiological surveillance sub-directorate of the General Directorate of Health and Public Hygiene show an upsurge in cases of human rabies from 3 in 2020 to 10 in 2022 and dog bites from 742 in 2020 to 1702 in 2022, hence this study with the objective of studying the factors associated with the occurrence of the disease in Mali. Methods: This is an analytical cross-sectional study of data from 2018 to 2022, that took place from February 1 to September 30, 2023. Study population was made up of any suspected case of dog of rabies recorded in the DGSHP database from 2018 to 2022. Pearson or Fisher Chi 2 tests and a α cut-off of 0.05 allowed comparisons. Results : Cases of dog bites were 368 including 24 cases of human rabies, i.e. a frequency of 6.52%. Factors associated with rabies were: lesion severity (p = 0.0001), lack of lesion management (p = 0.0001), failure to clean lesions (p = 0.0001), failure to visit a health facility after the bite (p = 0.001), lack of post-exposure vaccination (p = 0.001), notification structure (p = 0.001), lack of rabies vaccination of biting dogs (p = 0.008), bite lesions (p = 0.039). Conclusion: Vaccination of dogs, adequate care and community awareness will reduce the occurrence of rabies.