The status of rabies post-exposure prophylaxis at Van Yen district, Yen Bai province, 2020

Abstract

This descriptive study aims to describe the status of rabies post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) at Van Yen district, Yen Bai province. Results showed that: The PEP rate for exposed patients was at high (739/100.000), the children bitten by suspected animal and being administered rabies vaccine accounted for signifcant proportion of the whole and that is higher than other age group (p<0.05), the majority of patients exposed to rabid suspected dogs (93%) rather than other animals in which 1/3 of them were unhealthy dogs. Patients who suffered severe wounds at head-faceneck were almost children and immediately received rabies antiserum and vaccine. The rate of patients with wounds level-3 (severe and dangerous) accounted for 33.3% in the total and the muscular administration route of rabies vaccine was the common choice among patients at Van Yen district. On the whole, the rabies PEP burden in Van Yen district has been still at signifcantly high, therefore, in order to mitigate the rate of patients suffered dog bite, the local authority and relevant local sectors must focus on rabies communication to raise local people’s awareness of dog management and vaccination for their dog.