Publication:

Rabies and its prevention: are our medical students well informed?

Background Rabies is a vaccine-preventable, viral disease. However, once clinical symptoms appear, rabies is 100% fatal. Significantly, India accounts for 36% of the world’s rabies deaths. Recently, in Kerala, a surge in dog bite cases and a consequent rise in the incidence of rabies deaths has been noted, which is a serious public health medical concern. The present study was done to assess the level of knowledge of rabies and its prevention among medical students of Government T D Medical College, Alappuzha to identify lacunae in knowledge if any and to provide sessions on rabies prevention and control.

Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among the medical students of Government T. D. Medical College, Alappuzha in 2022. Convenient sampling was done, and data was collected using a pre-tested questionnaire which was analysed using SPSS software.

Results Out of the 261 students who took part in the study, 88.13% of the study participants were observed to have medium to sufficient level of knowledge regarding rabies and its prevention, while 11.87% had low level of knowledge. In general, the level of knowledge was noted to be roughly proportional to the year of study of MBBS.

Conclusions The level of knowledge of the participants with regards to the schedule of vaccination and knowledge of symptoms of rabies, was observed to be less than what would be desirable. Structured training and education of medical students can rectify this lacuna, and thereby bring about significant reduction in fatality rates.