International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences | October-December 2014 | Vol 2 | Issue 4 Page 1347 International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Kumar D et al. Int J Res Med Sci. 2014 Nov;2(4):1347-1349 www.msjonline.org pISSN 2320-6071 | eISSN 2320-6012 Research Article Knowledge assessment about risk prevention of rabies amongst doctors in AIIMS, Jodhpur Dewesh Kumar*, Pankaja Ravi Raghav, Mahendra Singh, Pankaj Bhardwaj INTRODUCTION Rabies still continues to be a major public health problem in India contributing around 36% of deaths due to Rabies worldwide. 1-3 There are various mammals who carry the rabies virus but dogs are the source of 99% of human infection. 4 Most animal bites in India are by dogs accounting for around 91.5% which are very commonly found in homes as pets and on streets and abandoned places as stray dogs. 5 As its case fatality rate is 100%, any carelessness in its post exposure prophylaxis may result in death of the patient. 6 Considering its fatality, any animal bite should be dealt with utmost care. So, it becomes imperative that the health care professionals have appropriate knowledge about the animal bites and risk prevention of Rabies and be better equipped to tackle this menace more efficiently. Although the general practitioners and primary care physicians are the most commonly the first line management providers but animal bites are so common and encountering these patients either in hospital, home or at any leisure place may not be uncommon for health care professionals of any speciality. In view of absence of anti-rabies clinic in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Jodhpur and patients thronging hospitals round the clock, it is prudent to have the knowledge of Rabies and its preventive measures so that appropriate advice can be provided to the patients. This study was intended to assess the knowledge of doctors of AIIMS, Jodhpur ABSTRACT Background: Rabies still continues to be a public health problem in India and to protect our citizens from this menace; medical professionals have to be well equipped to tackle it more efficiently. The paper aims to assess the knowledge of residents and faculty in newly established AIIMS regarding risk prevention of rabies. Methods: A cross sectional study using a structured questionnaire on rabies was done at AIIMS Jodhpur amongst the doctors and the data was compiled in Microsoft excel 2010 were further analysed using SPSS version 21. Results: Out of the total sixty respondents, faculty constituted 38.3%, and junior residents and senior residents 28.3% and 33.3% respectively. Nearly 72% responded correctly regarding post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) i.e. 5 dose regimen of intramuscular administration of Anti Rabies Vaccine (ARV) and 56.7% doctors were unaware about the current recommendation of intradermal (ID) route. Rabies immunoglobulin (RIG) or Anti-Rabies Serum (ARS) against Rabies infection used in Class III bites was known to only 45% of the total doctors. Conclusion: The study reveals that there is a scope of improvement in important areas related to the knowledge of doctors in AIIMS regarding animal bites which needs to be upgraded time to time through continuing medical education in order to follow the standard protocol and guidelines at the apex institute. Keywords: Rabies, ARV, Categories of wounds, PEP Department of Community and Family Medicine, AIIMS, Jodhpur-342005, Rajasthan, India Received: 18 July 2014 Accepted: 10 August 2014 *Correspondence: Dr. Dewesh Kumar, E-mail: dr.dewesh@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: 10.5455/2320-6012.ijrms20141119