Rabies awareness, incidence and vaccination coverage in Lilongwe, Malawi
Rabies kills about 55 000 people every year and more than 90% of infected humans are considered getting the disease from dog-bites. To control the disease and eventually eliminate human rabies, the most efficient and economic method is to keep the dog population vaccinated. The objective of this the...
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| Formato: | M3 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés sueco |
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SLU/Dept. of Clinical Sciences (until 231231)
2014
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| Materias: |
| _version_ | 1855571170027372544 |
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| author | Jonasson, Angelica |
| author_browse | Jonasson, Angelica |
| author_facet | Jonasson, Angelica |
| author_sort | Jonasson, Angelica |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | Rabies kills about 55 000 people every year and more than 90% of infected humans are considered getting the disease from dog-bites. To control the disease and eventually eliminate human rabies, the most efficient and economic method is to keep the dog population vaccinated. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the situation of canine rabies in two urban areas in Lilongwe, Malawi, where canine rabies is enzootic. In each area 200 household-interviews were conducted in September and October 2013. Focal points were awareness of the disease, human incidence as well as vaccination coverage in the dog population. Furthermore an animal organization had vaccinated dogs in one of the areas in their community clinic, but not in the other area. A comparison in vaccination coverage was made between the areas to evaluate the impact of the work of the community clinic.
In total 98% had heard of rabies and 88% would seek medical care if bitten by a dog in order to get treatment against rabies. Hereby awareness of rabies must be considered high. The standard treatment regimen to prevent rabies after dog-bite in Lilongwe is five doses of vaccine, which also is the recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO), but in average bitten people got only 3.7 doses. The reason is likely to be lack of vaccine doses.
Both areas had together vaccination coverage of 59% which is quite high when considering that it was only about a month left to the annual vaccination campaign at the time of the study. The human incidence of rabies in Lilongwe seems to be much higher than the annual officially reported number, which was estimated based on number of dog-bitten persons in the included areas in the study. Other studies have previously shown a correlation between number of dog-bites and number of human deaths in rabies. The vaccination coverage turned out to be higher in the area where the community clinic had not been based. Although the community clinic had not achieved especially high yearly coverage and it might not have contributed enough to make a difference. |
| format | M3 |
| id | RepoSLU7360 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Inglés swe |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | SLU/Dept. of Clinical Sciences (until 231231) |
| publisherStr | SLU/Dept. of Clinical Sciences (until 231231) |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU73602014-09-30T15:05:21Z Rabies awareness, incidence and vaccination coverage in Lilongwe, Malawi Förekomst och medvetenhet om rabies samt vaccinationstäckning i Lilongwe, Malawi Jonasson, Angelica rabies awareness dogs dog bite vaccination Lilongwe Malawi Rabies kills about 55 000 people every year and more than 90% of infected humans are considered getting the disease from dog-bites. To control the disease and eventually eliminate human rabies, the most efficient and economic method is to keep the dog population vaccinated. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the situation of canine rabies in two urban areas in Lilongwe, Malawi, where canine rabies is enzootic. In each area 200 household-interviews were conducted in September and October 2013. Focal points were awareness of the disease, human incidence as well as vaccination coverage in the dog population. Furthermore an animal organization had vaccinated dogs in one of the areas in their community clinic, but not in the other area. A comparison in vaccination coverage was made between the areas to evaluate the impact of the work of the community clinic. In total 98% had heard of rabies and 88% would seek medical care if bitten by a dog in order to get treatment against rabies. Hereby awareness of rabies must be considered high. The standard treatment regimen to prevent rabies after dog-bite in Lilongwe is five doses of vaccine, which also is the recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO), but in average bitten people got only 3.7 doses. The reason is likely to be lack of vaccine doses. Both areas had together vaccination coverage of 59% which is quite high when considering that it was only about a month left to the annual vaccination campaign at the time of the study. The human incidence of rabies in Lilongwe seems to be much higher than the annual officially reported number, which was estimated based on number of dog-bitten persons in the included areas in the study. Other studies have previously shown a correlation between number of dog-bites and number of human deaths in rabies. The vaccination coverage turned out to be higher in the area where the community clinic had not been based. Although the community clinic had not achieved especially high yearly coverage and it might not have contributed enough to make a difference. Omkring 55 000 människor dör årligen i rabies världen över och mer än 90 % av fallen anses bli smittade genom hundbett. För att minska och så småningom eliminera förekomsten hos humanbefolkningen anses den mest effektiva och ekonomiska metoden vara att hålla hundpopulationen kontinuerligt vaccinerad. Syftet med den här studien var att utvärdera rabiessituationen i två stadsdelar i Lilongwe, Malawi, där rabies förekommer enzootiskt. I varje stadsdel utfördes 200 hushållsintervjuer mellan september och oktober 2013 med avseende på medvetenhet om rabies, sjukdomsincidens hos humanbefolkningen samt andel vaccinerade hundar. En djurorganisation hade vaccinerat hundar gratis i den ena stadsdelen i sin ambulerande verksamhet, men inte varit verksamma i den andra. För att få en uppfattning om effekten av deras arbete jämfördes andelen vaccinerade hundar också mellan stadsdelarna. Totalt sett hade 98 % hört talas om rabies och 88 % sade att de skulle söka sjukvård om de blev bitna av en hund för att få förebyggande behandling mot rabies. Medvetenheten om rabies måste således anses vara hög. Av de hundbitna som sökte sjukvård fick genomsnittet färre vaccindoser i behandling mot rabies än vad som rekommenderas av Världshälsoorganisationen (WHO). WHO:s rekommenderade behandlingsregim var också den som angavs vara standard av ansvarig distriktsläkare i ”Lilongwe District”. Anledningen till att den regimen inte följs helt är sannolikt på brist på vaccin. I båda stadsdelarna sammantaget var 59 % av hundarna vaccinerade, vilket måste anses som relativt högt med tanke på att det bara var cirka en månad kvar till den årliga vaccinationskampanjen. Incidensen av rabies hos humanbefolkningen i Lilongwe verkar vara mycket högre än vad som rapporteras årligen, uppskattat utifrån andelen hundbitna människor i de båda stadsdelarna. Andra studier har tidigare visat på samband mellan antal hundbitna människor och antal människor som dött i rabies. Andelen vaccinerade hundar var högre i den stadsdel där organisationen ej bedrivit sin verksamhet, dock så var den andel hundar som vaccinerats årligen i genomsnitt inte så hög och hade troligen inte haft effekt nog att göra någon skillnad. SLU/Dept. of Clinical Sciences (until 231231) 2014 M3 eng swe https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/7360/ |
| spellingShingle | rabies awareness dogs dog bite vaccination Lilongwe Malawi Jonasson, Angelica Rabies awareness, incidence and vaccination coverage in Lilongwe, Malawi |
| title | Rabies awareness, incidence and vaccination coverage in Lilongwe, Malawi |
| title_full | Rabies awareness, incidence and vaccination coverage in Lilongwe, Malawi |
| title_fullStr | Rabies awareness, incidence and vaccination coverage in Lilongwe, Malawi |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rabies awareness, incidence and vaccination coverage in Lilongwe, Malawi |
| title_short | Rabies awareness, incidence and vaccination coverage in Lilongwe, Malawi |
| title_sort | rabies awareness, incidence and vaccination coverage in lilongwe, malawi |
| topic | rabies awareness dogs dog bite vaccination Lilongwe Malawi |