A Study on Delay in Initiation of Post-exposure Prophylaxis among the Animal Bite Victims from a Tertiary Care Hospital in Central India

Context: Rabies is a viral zoonotic disease associated with various sociocultural practices and myths, leading to ineffective and timely initiation of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for wound management due to animal bite among the victims. Aims: This study was conducted to identify the delay in initiation of post-exposure prophylaxis and various factors associated with it among the animal bite victims. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital of Jabalpur. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted for a period of 6 months till the completion of a sample size of 485 animal bite victims. Data collection was done with the help of a pre-tested, self-structured questionnaire by the face-to-face interview technique after obtaining written informed consent from them. Statistical Analysis Used: Data was entered in MS-Excel, and descriptive and multinomial logistic regression statistical analysis was done by IBM-SPSS v27.0. Results: In this study, the majority of the victims-initiated PEP within time (≤24 hours), 365 (75.26%), while 120 (24.74%) delayed (>24 hours). Those delayed in initiation maximum were from rural areas 62 (51.67%); AOR = 1.11 (0.49–3.03); P = 0.83, with superficial type 65 (61.90%), AOR = 0.55 (0.34–0.9); P = 0.01 and multiple type wounds 32 (80%), AOR = 0.22 (0.09–0.52), P = 0.001. Highly significant associations were observed among illiterates, those reported with multiple bite marks, punctured, bleeding, abraided, and Category I type of wounds, with delay. Conclusion: The majority of the victims initiated PEP without any delay, while the majority were from rural areas with superficial type wounds due to lack of knowledge, awareness, negligence, and far distance from a health care facility.