Compliance of Animal Bite Patients Managed by Intradermal Route of Antirabies Vaccination

Abstract

Rabies is one of the oldest recognized diseases affecting humans and one of the most important zoonotic diseases in India. Intradermal ARV has been started in the tertiary hospital where this study was done from December 2010. To know the compliance of animal bite patients managed by intra-dermal route of ARV and the reasons for delay or missing the scheduled dosage of ARV, a prospective study was conducted enrolling 250 patients coming to the ARV clinic. The patients who missed the scheduled dosage of ARV and never returned to the ARV clinic were followed through the telephone and their responses for delay or missing the scheduled dosage were recorded and also to know whether the patients had received the scheduled dosage of ARV at any other ARV clinic and thereby rightly classifying the patients as completely or incompletely immunized. Compliance was seen in 70% of the patients, while 30% of them were non-compliant. Holiday being scheduled on the day of ARV dose (40) personal or official workload (33 patients), patient’s forgetfullness about the scheduled date of vaccination (31) were some of the main reasons for not coming regularly to the ARV clinic to receive next scheduled dosage of ARV. It is concluded that counselling about the importance of completion of ARV schedule is of utmost importance. Counselling regarding side effects of ARV may improve compliance among patients by preventing default due to side effect.