Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Rabies remains endemic to the Harare Metropolitan Province of Zimbabwe, with a lack of
public participations potentially contributing to the limited success in eliminating the disease.
We hypothesized that rabies intervention campaigns were less successful than they could
be as a result of poor understanding of the disease at the community level, and thus aimed
to identify the knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards rabies in the province.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey, using a semi-structured questionnaire, was implemented between
January 2017 and June 2018 across the province and data were collected from 798 respondents. Frequency distributions and logistic regressions were undertaken to determine the
factors associated with the adequacy of the prevailing rabies knowledge, pet ownership
characteristics and the existing preventative practices.
RESULTS: The results of our study suggested that the majority of the respondents (92%) had heard of
rabies. However, the level of rabies knowledge could be classified as “adequate” in only
36% of respondents. The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that pet ownership and type of occupation were statistically associated with a better understanding and
knowledge of the disease. Off all the respondents, 49% owned at least one dog or cat and
suburb density and occupation were statistically associated with owning a pet. Amongst the
pet owners, 57% consulted an animal health practitioner at least once a year and 75% were
aware of a rabies vaccine for their pets. The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that age, education and gender were statistically associated with pet owners taking their pet(s) to an animal clinic.
CONCLUSION: This study showed that the majority of the respondents lacked comprehensive knowledge
about rabies, with the knowledge pertaining to health seeking behaviour and the importance
of rabies vaccination being the most lacking. Additional public education relying on key messages, aimed at the different target audiences, is required in the province.
