Research Article

An Overview of Prophylaxis and Compliance with Vaccination in Contacts with Rabies Risk

10.4274/atfm.galenos.2023.16870

  • Nilgün Altın
  • Müge Aslan
  • Tülay Ünver Ulusoy
  • Semanur Kuzi
  • İrfan Şencan

Received Date: 20.10.2022 Accepted Date: 17.04.2023 J Ankara Univ Fac Med 2023;76(1):50-55

Objectives:

Turkey is still an endemic region in terms of rabies which is a preventable disease. So, vaccination is important. Rabies is derived from wild animals in developed countries, whereas it is caused by domestic animals, especially dogs in developing countries. The aim of this study is to evaulate the patıents contact with rabies risk (CRR) who applied to our center and their compliance with the vaccination program.

Materials and Methods:

We included the the patients that applied to our Rabies Vaccine Center with a CRR between January 2019 and June 2022. The patient data were obtained from patıent information record. Complete vaccination/compliance with vaccination was defined as completion of vaccination program.

Results:

Of the 2355 patients [mean age; 36.4 (11-90) yrs] who received prophylaxis for CRR 1489 were men, and 866 were women. One-thousand two-hundred ninety-nine (55.2%) of the patients received also immunoglobulin (Ig). One-thousand four-hundred and eighty-nine of the contacts were with dogs and 872 were with cats. Eighty percent of the domestic animals were unvaccinated. Contacts were more frequent at Winter and Spring seasons. Compliance with complete vaccination rate was 65.7%. Women sex, Ig application, advanced age, recommendation of 4-doses of vaccination, being inhabitant of Ankara were associated with compliance with complete vaccination. Compliance with vaccination rates was higher in winter months whereas it was less in Spring. Also compliance rates were less in domestic animal contacts, whereas it was higher in non-domestic contacts.

Conclusion:

In this study, we found that CRR with domestic unvaccinated animal group was higher and compliance with complete vaccination rates were low. The reasons for non-compliance appear to be social reasons rather than side effects of vaccines. Our people should be made aware of the importance of pet vaccination and the full implementation of the recommended vaccination scheme in the case of CRR.

Keywords: Rabies, Vaccination, Risk, Compliance

Full Text (Turkish)