Survey of dog raising and post exposure prophylaxis of rabies among residents in Xiuzhou, Jiaxing, Zhejiang

Objective To understand the current status of dog raising, post exposure treatment of rabies and awareness of rabies related knowledge among local and migrant people in rural area in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province. Methods A household interview was conducted in 2 villages selected from 5 townships by multi stage cluster sampling, the database was established by using EpiData 3.0 and the data analysis was done by using SPSS 18.0 software. Results Totally 346 households were surveyed, the dog raising rate was 45.95% and average dog number per household was 1.4. Only 6.19% of the dogs were immunized. The dog raising rate in local people was higher than that in migrant people. In the past two years, 4.83% of the people surveyed were bitten by dogs, and 90.8% of them went to hospitals timely for post exposure treatment and complete full series of vaccination, 3.1% of those with wound at grade Ⅲ received extra human rabies immunoglobulin. Most exposure occurred in July. Among the people surveyed, 94% knew that rabies vaccine should be received after being bitten by dogs or cats, 81.8% knew the site of the rabies clinics and 77.5% knew that rabies is a fatal disease. The awareness rate of rabies related knowledge was higher in local people than in migrant people. Conclusion The dog density was high and the dog immunization rate was low in Xiuzhou District. Some people bitten by dogs didnt receive timely standard post exposure prophylaxis. It is necessary to strengthen the dog management, standardize the post exposure prophylaxis and conduct health education about rabies prevention and control in general population, especially in floating population.