Knowledge attitude and practice (KAP) survey regarding rabies prevention and control programs in Khok Ngam Sub district, Dansai District, Loei province, 2015

Abstract

Background: Rabies was still being a major public health problem in Loei province, especially in Khok Ngam Sub district, Dansai District regarding to occurrence of rabid animals in the area, during a period of 2013 to  2015. Communities of Khok Ngam Sub district was selected as a pilot study to develop a model of rabies free area in the future.
Methods: Knowledge attitude and practice (KAP) survey was conducted to describe characteristics of communities in an issue of rabies. Health volunteers interviewed household members in the community of Khok Ngam Sub district by using a structured questionnaire between June 20 and July 7, 2015.
Results: From a target population of 1,200 household members, 392 members participated into the study (32.67%). Most of respondents (86.97%) had knowledge about rabies in good level, but they had a lack of comprehensive knowledge about causative rabies (30.62%). Approximate 93% respondents agreed to receive post exposure prophylaxis if bitten by animals, and they agreed to send samples of suspected animals for testing rabies at laboratory (100%). However, 107 respondents or 28.99% did not agree to destroy animal if the animal was suspected to rabies. In a part of practice, a major problem of not bring their own animals to get rabies vaccination was hard to catch, especially in cats showed a high level of this difficulty (87.80%).
Conclusions and discussions: Thus, giving education about knowledge of rabies and building of understanding the laws and enforcement by asking cooperation from leaderships and religious leaderships in the communities could be key factors how to reach the successful program of rabies prevention and control in the areas.