Knowledge and practice on rabies prevention of inhabitants in Yen Chau district, Son La province, 2019

Abstract

A cross-sectional descriptive study of 375 inhabitants in Yen Chau district, Son La province in 2019 by sing a questionaire to describe knowledge and practice on rabies prevention of inhabitants. The result showed that a majority (62.4%) of households with the main form of free dog breeding and 51.7% of households having  rabies vaccination for dogs. In the past 12 months, the rate of people/relatives being bitten/scratched by dogs was 19.2%. whereas the action of people for the highest proportion was going to a medical facility for 40.2%, followed by vaccination to prevent rabies at 34.7% and doing nothing were 27.7%. People with general knowledge and practice about rabies prevention were 72.5% and 54.9%, respectively. Given the above research results, the locality needs to employ more active health education communication measures that needs to be specifically suitable for the people (the majority of the people are ethnic minorities and have a below-average high school education level), and to strengthen the vaccination against rabies for dogs.