Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

Meta-analysis on rabies in India was done to estimate the prevalence of the disease in India. The data was obtained from the peer-reviewed articles and publications during 2010-2020. The data used in the present study includes the studies in which the samples were completely random. The Meta-analysis for the epidemiology and sero-prevalence of rabies was done on a total of 20 out of 32 selected studies. Further subgroup analysis was done for species, geographical regions, and diagnostic tests. The total sample size for prevalence estimation was 26605. Sero-prevalence of rabies in dogs showed nonsignificant Kendall’s tau (0.4667, p > 0.05) and regression test revealed significant publication bias (z= 0.3222, p>0.05). The majority of bite victims were between the ages up to 20 years (21.49%) followed by 20.30% in the ages between 21-40. In the studies that were mentioned, males were disproportionately more likely (71.87%) to have been bitten by a dog than females (28.13%). The majority of victims suffered animal bites on their extremities. Maximum dog bites were recorded in the evening (62.9%).