LAUSR

Background: Globally, it’s estimated 60,000 human deaths occur due to rabies with 95% of cases occurring in Africa and Asia. Annually, thousands of people are infected with rabies in Ethiopia and more than 2700 people die. In Ethiopia, the neural-based vaccine has been used since the 1950’s. Due to the old method of production, low immunogenicity and vaccine associated adverse events, WHO discourage the use of this vaccine and recommend replacing it with a safe and effective modern cell culture vaccine. There was no specific guidelines and training for this vaccine and health professional mismanage the nerve tissue vaccine (NTV) with cell culture vaccine resulting in vaccination failure. This study identifies professional knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP), vaccine related adverse events and the burden of rabies cases in humans. Methods: Data were collected from health professionals in selected health facilities using structured questionnaire to identify the level of KAP. Results: The study identified overall gaps in the professionals KAP as below standard which is not more than 25%. The majority of the respondents (97%) reported vaccine associated local adverse events followed by 20% systemic complications during vaccination. Only 2.4% of the respondents reported post-vaccine complications. Rabies cases in humans at those covered health facilities were reported to be 32 during the one-year study period with an average of two cases at each facility. Conclusions: Gaps identified in the professional KAP result indicate the need to provide specific training based on standard guidelines. Generally, the study indicates the need to strengthen rabies prevention and control efforts through inter-sectoral collaboration, and facilitating the establishment of facility-based rabies palliative care centers. In addition, it is recommended to work on technology transfer to replace old method of NTV production with safe and effective modern cell culture based anti-rabies vaccine production for effective rabies PEP.