Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of respondents towards Rabies and associated risk factors in Shone Town, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia

A survey-based cross-sectional study was carried out in the community of Shone Town, Hadiya Zone, South Region of Ethiopia, from November 2022 to April 2023 to assess respondents knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding rabies and associated factors. Woreda was selected purposefully, while kebeles and study populations were selected by simple random sampling. A total of 416 respondents were randomly selected and interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. All respondents (100%) heard about rabies from different sources, with the majority of them hearing about it from informal sources (62%), followed by mixed (mass media and traditional ways). 31.7% of those surveyed were aware that a virus was the cause of rabies. The findings revealed that 51.9% of individuals were aware of saliva contact, 0.7% were aware of rabid animal bites, and 47.4% were aware of both modes of transmission. With regard to the 100% fatal nature of rabies once the clinical signs developed, 64.4% of participants knew and the rest, 35.6%, did not. In terms of washing dog bite wounds with soap and water, the majority (86.3%) of respondents were aware. Of all participants, 73.1% agreed that stray dogs are dangerous, and 78.4% agreed that rabies is a problem for the community. With regard to the idea of killing stray dogs for the purpose of rabies prevention, 51.4% of respondents agreed that it was an effective method. 72.6% of respondents had contact with pets; however, 32% washed their hands after touching the pet animals. More than half of respondents practiced killing to control stray dogs. 36.8% of interviewees were experienced in vaccinating their dogs. In comparing the associations of several demographic risk factors with the mode of transmission and the risk of not vaccinating dogs, it was discovered that sex, age, occupations, and family size were statistically significant with both the risk of not vaccinating dogs and the means of transmission (P<0.05). The study demonstrates that a lack of formal education programs in the communities, low levels of education, and the majority of respondents acquiring their knowledge from unofficial sources were important contributors to the low levels of awareness among communities. The community should have been made aware of rabies through regular education, which should have been planned by veterinarians and medical professionals. Authors summaryIn Ethiopia, rabies is a leading cause of death that can be prevented. At Shone Town, Southern Ethiopia, we assessed community knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward rabies and its associated risk factors. All respondents heard about rabies from different sources, with most of them learned about it from informal sources. The participants were aware that the main ways of transmission were animal bites and saliva contact. The majority of participants agreed that stray dogs are harmful to the community and hazardous. More than half of those surveyed admitted to killing stray dogs. Most participants did not provide proper first aid after a suspected rabies bite, and contrary to accepted guidelines, the majority of animals were put to death rather than quarantined after a bite occurrence. The study shows that low levels of formal education programs in the communities and the fact that most respondents got their information from unreliable sources were major factors in the low levels of awareness among communities.