Abstract:
Background
Timely presentation to appropriate health service provider of sick animals/humans from
zoonotic diseases like rabies is important for early case/outbreak detection and management. However, data on community’s health seeking practice for rabies in Ethiopia is limited. Therefore the objective of this study was to determine community’s health seeking
behavior on rabies, Southwest Ethiopia.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey was conducted from January 16-February 14, 2015 to collect data
from 808 respondents where the respondents were selected using multistage sampling
technique. Data were collected using interviewer administered structured questionnaire by
trained epidemiology graduate level students. Data were entered to Epidata version 3.1 and
analyzed using SPSS version 20 for windows.
Result
Eight hundred three (99.4%) respondents participated in the study. Out of 28 respondents
who reported their family members’ exposure to rabies, 8 of them replied that the exposed
family members sought treatment from traditional healers. More than nine in ten respondents perceived that humans and domestic animals with rabies exposure should seek help
of which 85% of them suggested modern health care facilities as the preferred management
option for the sick humans and domestic animals. However, among those who reported sick
domestic animals, near to 72% of them had either slaughtered for human consumption,
sold immediately, visited traditional healer, given home care or did nothing for the sick
domestic animals.
