Knowledge, attitude and practice related to rabies among residents of Amhara region, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Rabies is an important viral zoonotic disease with high fatality rate and economic losses. The impact of rabies is considerably high in Asia and Africa. The study was designed to assess the community’s rabies knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) and their determinants in Amhara region, Ethiopia. METHODS: The study was done based on a questionnaire survey of 899 participants in towns and rural districts of Amhara region. Multistage cluster sampling procedure was used to select participants. Quantitative score was generated for KAP and the scores were dichotomized as adequate and inadequate knowledge, desirable and undesirable attitude, and good and poor practice. Descriptive statics and mixed effect logistic regression considering kebele and villages as a random effect was used to see the association of predictor variables towards adequate knowledge, desirable attitude and good practice. RESULTS: About 61%, 72% and 45% of the respondents have adequate knowledge, desirable attitude and good practice scores, respectively. Almost all (99%) of the respondents rightly claimed that rabies is transmitted through bite of dogs. Majority of the participants (76.8%) strongly agree that rabies is an important zoonotic disease that can threaten the lives of humans and animals. Only 8% of the respondents had a practice of washing and rinsing dog bite wounds for the prevention of rabies. Female participants were less likely to have adequate knowledge than males (OR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.35–0.96). Respondents in urban areas were more likely to have desirable attitude than rural residents (OR = 12.4, CI = 1.38–11.67). CONCLUSION: The study showed that participants have good knowledge and attitude towards rabies but poor rabies prevention and control practices. The community public health education should focus on translation of these good knowledge and favorable attitude into practices that effectively reduces rabies burden.