Pre-treatment practices among patients attending an Animal Bite Management clinic at a primary health centre in Haryana,North India

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was carried out at the Animal Bite Management (ABM) clinic in a primary health centre in the Faridabad district of Haryana. Information about socio-demographic characteristics, animal bite exposure and pre-treatment practices was obtained. Clinical examination determined the severity of the bite. All 619 patients who reported to the ABM clinic during January 2011 to December 2012 were included. Out of the total, 38% had applied chilli-oil paste, and 4% antiseptics to the wound as pre-treatment; only 30.6% had washed the wound with water. There was a direct association between traditional pre-treatment practices and delay in seeking treatment for animal bites which was statistically significant (P = 0.01). Health education of the general population with culturally appropriate Information, Education and Communication material is therefore a necessary strategy to reduce delay in seeking appropriate treatment.

Keywords

Animal bites Rabies Native/traditional treatment practices Rural India

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Sudarshan

Mahendra

Madhusudana

Ashwoath Narayana

Rahman

Rao

NSN

. An epidemiological study of animal bites in India: results of a WHO sponsored national multi-centric rabies survey. J Commun Dis 2006; 38: 32–39.

Sudarshan

Madhusudana

Mahendra

Rao

NSN

Ashwath Narayana

Abdul Rahman

. Assessing the burden of human rabies in India: results of a national multi-center epidemiological survey. Int J Infect Dis 2007; 11: 29–35.

Hampson

Dobson

Kaare

Dushoff

Magoto

Sindoya

. Rabies exposures, post-exposure prophylaxis and deaths in a region of endemic canine rabies. PLoS Neg Trop Dis 2008; 2: e339–e339.

Kant

Misra

Gupta

Goswami

Krishnan

Nongkynrih

. The Ballabgarh Health and Demographic Surveillance System (CRHSP-AIIMS). Int J Epidemiol 2013; 42: 758–768.

World Health Organization. Recommendations for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis. Geneva: WHO, 2010. Available at: www.who.int/entity/rabies/PEProphylaxisguideline.pdf (accessed 21 September 2013).

Chhabra

Icchpujani

Bhardwaj

Tiwari

Panda

Lal

. Safety and immunogenicity of intradermal Thi Red Cross (2-2-2-0-1-1) post exposure vaccination regimen in the Indian population using purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine. Indian J Med Microbiol 2005; 23: 24–28.

Khokhar

Meena

Mehra

. Profile of dog bite cases attending M.C.D. dispensary at Alipur, Delhi. Indian J Community Med 2003; 28: 157–160.

Hanspal

Bhandari

Nagar

. A review of attendance trend of animal bite cases in the anti-rabies clinic of G.G.S. Hospital, Jamnagar, Gujarat. APCRI 2006; 8: 2–2. Available at: http://rabies.org.in/rabies-journal/rabies-08-2/OriginalArticle2.htm (accessed 21 September 2013.

Malini

Satapathy

Tripathy

. An analysis of late reporting of animal bite victims to the ARC of MKCG Medical College, Berhampur. APCRI 2010; 12: 33–36. Available at: http://rabies.org.in/rabies/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/July2010.pdf (accessed 21 September 2013.

10.

Agarwal

Reddaiah

. Epidemiology of dog bites: a community-based study in India. Trop Doct 2004; 34: 76–78.

11.

Prasad

Duggal

Aggarwal

Kumar

. Animal bite management practices: a survey of health care providers in a community development block of Haryana. J Commun Dis 2001; 33: 266–273.

12.

Moore

Sischo

Hunter

Miles

. Animal bite epidemiology and surveillance for rabies postexposure prophylaxis. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2000; 217: 190–194.