Sumon Ghosh
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J AIDS Clin Res
Bangladesh has reduced the death of rabies cases by 50% over the last few years. Clinical and epidemiological knowledge of human rabies is crucial to direct further research investigation and to implement disease control measures. We reviewed the patientâ??s records of 422 rabies cases reported from the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 2011 to 2015, with a clinical diagnosis of rabies. Male patients out numbered females by 2.3 to 1 and 48% of them were under the age of 15 years. 82% (n=346) of the cases came from rural areas. Dogs with unknown vaccination status (n=412, 98%), comprised the majority of exposures (n=380, 90%). The exposures mostly involved the lower limbs (n=320, 76%), with the majority categorized as WHO Category III (n=399, 95%). 78% (n=327) of the victims did seek treatment from traditional healers and 12% (n=51) received post exposure prophylaxis (PEP). No history of receiving pre exposure rabies vaccination was found. The incubation period varied, with the highest number of cases occurring in 0-90 days post exposure categories. The shortest and longest reported incubation periods were 5 days and 370 days respectively. Bites in head and neck, appeared to have a shorter incubation period, compared with bites to the lower extremity. Clinical symptoms included hydrophobia (97%), aerophobia (84%), photophobia (10%), hypersalivation (7%). The case fatality rate was 100%. Improving treatment seeking behavior of the bite victims through education, ensuring better accessibility and availability for the provision of rabies PEP and implementing a country wide dog vaccination campaign will help prevent human rabies death toll.
E-mail: sumon.ghoshbd@gmail.com
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