High Incidence of Human Rabies Exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia: A Four-Year Retrospective Study.
BACKGROUND:Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease that has been known in Ethiopia for centuries in society as "Mad Dog Disease". It is an important disease with veterinary and public health significance in the North western zone of Tigray where previous studies have not been conducted. Frequen...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c7228fde9cd346aa8c5a668ecaf7a3d8 2023-05-15T15:13:21+02:00 High Incidence of Human Rabies Exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia: A Four-Year Retrospective Study. Gebreyohans Gebru Teklu Teweldemedhn Gebretinsae Hailu Gebremedhin Romha Eshetu 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005271 https://doaj.org/article/c7228fde9cd346aa8c5a668ecaf7a3d8 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5245898?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0005271 https://doaj.org/article/c7228fde9cd346aa8c5a668ecaf7a3d8 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 11, Iss 1, p e0005271 (2017) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005271 2022-12-30T21:04:24Z BACKGROUND:Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease that has been known in Ethiopia for centuries in society as "Mad Dog Disease". It is an important disease with veterinary and public health significance in the North western zone of Tigray where previous studies have not been conducted. Frequent occurrence of outbreaks in the area led the researchers to carry out a four year retrospective study to estimate the incidence of human rabies exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia. METHODOLOGY:A referent study was conducted on human rabies exposure cases recorded from 2012 to 2015 at Suhul hospital, Shire Endaselase, Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia. Exposure cases included in this research constituted victims bitten by unprovoked dogs and who received post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) at the hospital. Two thousand one hundred eighty human rabies exposure cases retrieved from the rabies case database were included in this study. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:The majority of the exposed cases were males (1363/2180, 63%). Age wise, the most exposed age group was ≥15 years in all the study years: 166 (58%), 335 (65%), 492 (66%) and 394 (63%) in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Similarly, exposure cases for human rabies increased with age in both males and females across the study years. The incidence of human rabies exposure cases calculated per 100,000 populations was 35.8, 63.0, 89.8 and 73.1 in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that being male was a risk for human rabies exposure in all the study years. CONCLUSION:The study discovered the highest annual human rabies exposure incidence in Ethiopia. This suggests an urgent need for synergistic efforts of human and animal health sectors to implement prevention and control strategies in this area. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 11 1 e0005271 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Gebreyohans Gebru Teklu Teweldemedhn Gebretinsae Hailu Gebremedhin Romha Eshetu High Incidence of Human Rabies Exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia: A Four-Year Retrospective Study. |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
BACKGROUND:Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease that has been known in Ethiopia for centuries in society as "Mad Dog Disease". It is an important disease with veterinary and public health significance in the North western zone of Tigray where previous studies have not been conducted. Frequent occurrence of outbreaks in the area led the researchers to carry out a four year retrospective study to estimate the incidence of human rabies exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia. METHODOLOGY:A referent study was conducted on human rabies exposure cases recorded from 2012 to 2015 at Suhul hospital, Shire Endaselase, Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia. Exposure cases included in this research constituted victims bitten by unprovoked dogs and who received post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) at the hospital. Two thousand one hundred eighty human rabies exposure cases retrieved from the rabies case database were included in this study. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:The majority of the exposed cases were males (1363/2180, 63%). Age wise, the most exposed age group was ≥15 years in all the study years: 166 (58%), 335 (65%), 492 (66%) and 394 (63%) in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Similarly, exposure cases for human rabies increased with age in both males and females across the study years. The incidence of human rabies exposure cases calculated per 100,000 populations was 35.8, 63.0, 89.8 and 73.1 in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that being male was a risk for human rabies exposure in all the study years. CONCLUSION:The study discovered the highest annual human rabies exposure incidence in Ethiopia. This suggests an urgent need for synergistic efforts of human and animal health sectors to implement prevention and control strategies in this area. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gebreyohans Gebru Teklu Teweldemedhn Gebretinsae Hailu Gebremedhin Romha Eshetu |
author_facet |
Gebreyohans Gebru Teklu Teweldemedhn Gebretinsae Hailu Gebremedhin Romha Eshetu |
author_sort |
Gebreyohans Gebru Teklu |
title |
High Incidence of Human Rabies Exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia: A Four-Year Retrospective Study. |
title_short |
High Incidence of Human Rabies Exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia: A Four-Year Retrospective Study. |
title_full |
High Incidence of Human Rabies Exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia: A Four-Year Retrospective Study. |
title_fullStr |
High Incidence of Human Rabies Exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia: A Four-Year Retrospective Study. |
title_full_unstemmed |
High Incidence of Human Rabies Exposure in Northwestern Tigray, Ethiopia: A Four-Year Retrospective Study. |
title_sort |
high incidence of human rabies exposure in northwestern tigray, ethiopia: a four-year retrospective study. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005271 https://doaj.org/article/c7228fde9cd346aa8c5a668ecaf7a3d8 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 11, Iss 1, p e0005271 (2017) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5245898?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0005271 https://doaj.org/article/c7228fde9cd346aa8c5a668ecaf7a3d8 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005271 |
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PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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11 |
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1 |
container_start_page |
e0005271 |
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1766343915589337088 |