Prevalence of dog bite in animals, and humans’ perception of rabies in southeastern part of Bangladesh: a veterinary public concern

Dog bite is one of the most common and significant predisposing factors for transmission of rabies from reservoir to other hosts including human. Human perception about infectious diseases like rabies is arguably the most deciding factor in controlling epidemics. A cross sectional study was conducted on dog bite cases in domestic and pet animals of 17veterinary hospital entrants in southeastern part of Bangladesh from January to December 2018 and the respondent perception regarding rabies, dog bite management and post exposure vaccination (PEV) information was also collected by using a pre-structured questionnaire. All the dog bite cases were confirmed based on patient history, clinical signs and physical examination. Finally, all data were summarized using Stata 13 programme. A total of 895 dog bite cases (11.9%; 95% CI 11.1-12.6) were confirmed from 7538 outpatients. Of them, highest prevalence was found in dog (33.3%; 95% CI23.3-45.1) followed by goat (12.6%; 95% CI 12.1-13.8) and cattle (6.9%, 95% CI 5.7-8.2). Among the body sites, thigh region was found to be the most vulnerable region for dog bite (50 to 73.9%) in all species. However, female (13.3%) and younger (11.6%) animals were frequently affected by dog bite in all cases. Out of 327 respondents, about 59% animal owners had preliminary knowledge about rabies and they were concerned about fatality and consequences of this disease. Perception regarding post exposure vaccination (PEV) was quite variable among dog owners (65.8%) and farmers (34.2%), where most farmers (82.9%) perceived that government veterinary hospitals are the only center for PEVs. This study reveals a high proportion of dog bite patients in veterinary hospitals in Bangladesh and the majority of animal owners do not have appropriate perception on post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in dog bite cases.