ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE (KAP) OF COMMUNITY TOWARD RABIES IN MEDAWELABU DISTRICT, BALE ZONE, ETHIOPIA

The study was conducted in Meda Welabu district, Bale zone, Ethiopia from March 2019 to November 2019 to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of the community toward rabies using a community based cross sectional study supported by semi-structured questionnaire survey. Meda Welabu district and the kebeles were selected purposively and by lottery method respectively, while the households from each kebeles were selected using systematic random sampling technique. Of 400 people interviewed, the majority of participants (88%) had been heard of rabies previously and 52.5% of them knew dogs as the reservoir of rabies. About 73% of them answered bite is the major source of rabies transmission and 62.8% could able to describe the symptoms of rabies in dogs. Statistically significant difference was revealed between some key questions related to KAP and explanatory variables like sex (P<0.001), age (P<0.001) educational levels (P<0.001) and religion (P<0.001) of respondents. Generally, the people in this area are a little bit known about rabies; however, they have negative attitude and practice on rabies. Therefore, an education outreach should be conveyed to ensure accurate knowledge, improve attitude and practice about rabies in this area.