فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND: Although rabies is highly fatal, with timely and correct postexposure prophylaxis (PEP)of animal bite victims, it could be prevented. Medical school students should be trained about theappropriate rabies management during their formative years so that they put the right practice lateron. The study was conducted to assess the knowledge about rabies epidemiology and prophylaxisamong medical students and to find the effect of an educational intervention.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a quasi‑experimental study conducted with 156 thirdacademic year medical school students at a tertiary care teaching hospital. The study participantswere given health education intervention. A study tool assessed the knowledge of study participantson domains such as epidemiology of rabies, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and PEP, and nationalprogram guidelines of rabies prevention. The study tool was administered before and after theintervention. The impact of educational intervention was measured with scores. Wilcoxon signed‑ranktest was applied to test the difference.RESULTS: The overall total mean pretest total score was 14.9 (±3.7) and posttest score was22.7 (±3.23) for a maximum score of 29. The mean pretest scores for epidemiology, PrEP and PEPand national program components were 6.09, 7.95, and 0.85 respectively. Likewise, the mean posttestscores were 8.09, 13.26, and 1.35 respectively. There were a statistically significant improvementin the scores after health education intervention.CONCLUSIONS: After educational intervention, there were statistically significant improvement inthe scores of all the three domains. PrEP and PEP and national program domain of rabies need tobe emphasized during formative years.