Assesment of appropriateness of prophylaxis in rabies suspected bites cases at kemalpaşa

Objective: Assessment of socio-demographical characteristics, rabies suspected bite properties and prophylaxis approaches for cases of post exposure prophylaxis following rabies suspected bites and analysis of appropriateness of post exposure prophylaxis and influencing factors for post exposure prophylaxis of rabies suspected bites at the Region of İzmir Province Kemalpaşa Health Group Department.Methods: This is a cross-sectional analytic study. The case research population is consisted by 538 cases recorded between 2005 and 2006. Data were collected from rabies suspected bites book records. Socio-demographical and rabies suspected bite properties of cases and post exposure prophylaxis approaches were evaluated as independent variables and appropriateness of post exposure prophylaxis was evaluated as a dependent variable. The 217 cases with complete records were evaluated according to Rabies Protection and Control Directive. Chi-square, Fisher?s exact test and Yates continuity correction were done and Epi info-Statcalc ve SPSS 13.0 software was used.Results: 71.9% of the cases were male, 41% of them were under 20 and 72.9% of them were living in urban areas. It was determined that 72.4% of suspected bites applied in the first day, 77.1% of them were bitten by a single animal and 64.7% of them were of domestic animals. Appropriateness of post exposure prophylaxis to the directive is 7.8%. Year (p=0.008), season (p=0.007), gender (p=0.004), beginning of prophylaxis (p=0.013) affect the appropriateness significantly. The appropriateness is significantly higher in cases of people applying in 2005, women cases, suspected bites in spring/summer seasons, applications made after the first day of incidence. For inappropriate prophylaxis approaches the most common failure is the inability to select appropriate prophylaxis in cases of rabies not being immunoglobulin.Conclusion: Appropriate prophylaxis approach is very low for rabies suspected bites.Keywords: rabies suspected bite, post exposure prophylaxis, appropriateness of post exposure prophylaxis.