[Improved adherence to post-exposure prophylaxis through the use of mobile telephony at the Treichville anti-rabies center, Côte d’Ivoire.].

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to determine the effects of mobile telephony on the improvement of post-exposure prophylaxis compliance at the Abidjan anti-rabies center.

METHODS

This is a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study, which ran from September 2014 to May 2015. The data collection took place in two stages: first interview of all patients at the anti-rabies center at their first consultation, then a telephone interview three days after, only for those who had abandoned their prophylaxis.

RESULTS

The results indicated that after telephone calls, the dropout rate dropped from 59.3% to 44.8%. Discontinuations were less frequent in patients who received a veterinary surveillance notice (ORa = 0.23, 95% CI [0.11-0.48]), who had at least one veterinary certificate (ORa = 0.25 95% CI [0.15-0.43]) or more than two doses of vaccine (ORa = 0.23, 95% CI [0.12-0.42]) before telephone call. However, dropout rates were high in patients aged 20 to 29 years (ORa = 2.66, 95% CI [1.25-5.68]) and in patients with category III exposure (ORa = 2.19, 95% CI [1.12-54.3]).

CONCLUSION

These results show that mobile telephony is a useful tool for educating patients to adhere to post-exposure prophylaxis. However, information and public awareness campaigns on the fatal outcome of rabies must be organized.