Abstract

Prophylaxis before and after exposure to rabies risk is a major strategy in the fight against human rabies.

Objective: Analyze the knowledgeof first-level health personnel on human anti-rabies treatment before and after exposure in the city of Ouagadougou.

Patients and Methods: We conducted a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study that took place in public and private care facilities in the city of Ouagadougou.

Results: One hundred and sixty-nine first-level care workers from the city of Ouagadougou were involved. Overall, 44.22% of workers’ responses were consistent with the WHO recommendations for antirabies treatment. More specifically, only 27.8% of all-category workers knew that anyone at risk of rabies needed rabies vaccination before exposure. For post-exposure prophylaxis, 78.1% of the agents, regardless of their qualification, practiced washing / rinsing with soap and immediately disinfected the suspicious wounds. The proportion of non-WHO response was higher among staff with less than 15 years of length of service (p <0.001). The proportion of non-compliant responses to WHO recommendations was 56.2% for category III exposure, 84% for Category II exposures and 55.6% for Category I exposures. -conformity was higher among staff with a length of service less than 15 years for Category II and III exposures. For Category I exposures, the responses did not vary according to the length of service of the agents. These bad answers reflect a lack of knowledge about rabies. Indeed, 66.3% of the agents knew that rabies is of viral origin, 30.8% knew the mode of transmission of rabies, 1.8% knew the duration of the incubation period of rabies while 37 3% thought that we could cure human rabies. It is urgent to retrain health workers on anti-rabies prophylaxis.

Keywords: Rabies; Prophylaxis, Knowledge; Practice; Health worker