NCT07012083

Adherence to Anti-rabies Post-exposure Prophylactic Protocols

Egyptian Doctors' Adherence to Anti-rabies Post-exposure Prophylactic Protocols; A Survey Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 214 (actual)
• Sponsor: Tanta University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: —

Summary

This study aims to investigate physicians' adherence to Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) guidelines regarding Anti-rabies post-exposure prophylaxis in Egypt.

Detailed description

There is no known effective treatment for rabies, and virtually all cases are fatal. Although the prognosis is poor in patients who develop rabies, the disease is usually preventable with proper wound care and post-exposure prophylaxis. Following a thorough risk assessment, the decision to initiate rabies post-exposure prophylaxis should be made. The risk assessment should consider the type of exposure, local rabies epidemiology in animals, vaccination history of the animal, circumstances of the exposure incident, and the availability of the animal for observation or rabies testing . The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) have adopted guidelines for starting post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) against rabies. The decision to start Anti-Rabies PEP is usually made in primary health care units or emergency departments . Lack of adherence to these guidelines might result in unnecessary costs and medical risks, such as injection site reactions and systemic hypersensitivity reactions . This malpractice of inappropriate anti-rabies PEP prescription is not uncommon.

Conditions

• Rabies

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	survey	This cross-sectional survey study will be conducted on a consecutive sample of physicians who treat patients with animal bites potentially requiring post-exposure anti-rabies prophylaxis. The sample will include emergency physicians, general practice or family physicians, and surgeons of both sexes, with varying degrees of experience and post-graduate clinical training. All participants will consent to submit an anonymous Google Form-based questionnaire. The designed questionnaire will include introductory personal, academic, and work experience data about the physicians as gender, age, specialty, workplace, highest achieved medical-academic or training degree, and number of years of postgraduate clinical work experience. Candidates will be asked to reflect on their pre and postgraduate education/training quality and their confidence level in prescribing anti-rabies post-exposure prophylaxis treatment. (as a linear scale).

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-06-01
• Primary completion: 2026-01-31
• Completion: 2026-03-01
• First posted: 2025-06-10
• Last updated: 2026-03-30

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Egypt