Journal of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine

Rabies has been proven to be endemic in Cameroon and in order to understand the determinants of this situation a Knowledge-Attitudes-Practices (KAP) evaluation has been undertaken in three regions with different sociodemographic characteristics of the country (Centre, North and Adamawa) from September 2012 to July 2014. Fourty-five questions have been addressed to 2500 households, 500 each in Garoua and Ngaoundéré cities in North and Adamawa, and 1500 in Yaoundé, one person chosen randomly per household. The overall answered rate was 44.72%, with 79.6% in Garoua, 49.6% in Ngaoundéré and 31.47% in Yaoundé with a total of 1118 households with exploitable data. 88.73% of these persons said they have heard about rabies, 97.88% of them being able to name at least one of the susceptible species. The transmission of rabies has been mostly associated to bites which has been cited 90.87% in animals and 96.44% in humans respectively by 64.01% and 79.33% of the population. However, this knowledge was very limited as wrong means of transmission as sexual intercourses, dirtiness, and consumption of dogs have also been listed. Furthermore, more than a half (52.22%) of people who have heard about rabies claim that the disease can be cured at any stage of its evolution, 3.65% of them saying that the disease can be cured through traditional means like plants, or by eating the raw liver or heart of the affected dog. The attitudes and practices regarding rabies were also wrong as more than a half of dog owners have not vaccinated their animals and 34.25% recommended to kill stray dogs as a mean to control rabies rather than vaccination (16.35%) and education (1.61%). In general, the population of Yaoundé have shown a better knowledge attitude and practices of the disease than those of Ngaoundéré and Garoua respectively. An association has been established between the knowledge of the issue of the disease and the localization (p=0.00069). The eradication of the disease being based on the appropriate knowledge of the disease, there is a need for all the different parts of the community to be involved in an establishment of a sensitization program for the population.