Awareness and practice of animal bite management among patients attending rabies clinic of a tertiary hospital, Burdwan, India

Introduction: Rabies is a neglected disease of poor and vulnerable populations whose deaths are rarely reported. Although rabies is 100% fatal, it is 100% preventable also, but unfortunately, lots of death is occurring around the year. With this, the present study was performed to assess the sociodemographic profile and awareness and practice regarding management of animal bite among patients attending Rabies Clinic of Burdwan Medical College and Hospital (BMC&H), Burdwan, India. Methodology: This study was conducted among 220 patients in Rabies Clinic of BMC&H, Burdwan, India, between July and December 2012. Information about sociodemographic characteristics, awareness, and practices of animal bite were collected. Results: More than half (120, 54.6%) of the participants got animal bite-related information from health personnel (doctors, nurses, etc.). Dog bite was seen in 80% (176) of the cases; interestingly, monkey bite was seen in 4.1% (9) of the cases. Nearly sixty-six percent (65.8%) patients were classified as Category III according to the World Health Organization classification of the severity of wounds. Almost half of the victims (102, 46.3%) washed wound with soap under running tap water, whereas 12.9% (28) had taken no action. Most of the animal bite victims (177, 80.5%) received injection of tetanus toxoid and anti-rabies vaccine following animal bite. Conclusion: The present study showed that more than half of the participants got animal bite-related information from health personnel (doctors, nurses, etc.) and 12.9% (28) had taken no action after animal bite. These indicate proper control of stray animals as well as right medical advice and adequate treatment of animal bite cases can reduce the incidence of rabies.