Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Rabies in and Around Debretabor, South Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia

This study was conducted in and around Debre Tabor Town, South Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia from November, 2014 to April, 2015 to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of the community on rabies and associated risk factors. A cross-sectional study design and multistage sampling procedures were employed to select households for this study. Administrative areas were randomly selected from the town. Kebeles were selected using lottery method from list of kebeles in each administrative area, followed by selection of households from each kebeles using systematic random sampling method. The data were collected from 384 households through face to face interview using pretested and structured questionnaires. Out of the 384 respondents interviewed, 53.9% of them were males and 46.1% females. The majority of the respondents 75.5% were Orthodox followed by Muslim 15.6%. All of the respondents indicated that they had previously heard about rabies. Almost half of the study participants 49.5% had good level of KAP. There was strong association between KAP scores and age (x =8.001, p<0.05); educational level (x =11.409, p<0.05) and 2 2 occupation (x =14.307, p<0.05). Generally these findings indicate that the Debre Tabor community has good 2 knowledge about rabies. But it need for educational outreach in Debre Tabor Town to raise accurate knowledge on mode of transmission, symptoms and appropriate prevention and treatment measures.