Rabies is an important neglected disease, which kills around 59,000 people a year. Over a third of these deaths are in children less than 15 years of age. Almost all human rabies deaths in Africa and Asia are due to bites from infected dogs. Despite the high efficacy of current rabies vaccines, awareness about rabies preventive healthcare is often low in endemic areas. It is therefore common for educational initiatives to be conducted in conjunction with other rabies control activities such as mass dog vaccination, however there are few examples where the efficacy of education activities has been assessed. Here, primary school children in Zomba, Malawi, were given a lesson on rabies biology and preventive healthcare. Subsequently, a mass dog vaccination programme was delivered in the same region. Knowledge and attitudes towards rabies were assessed by a questionnaire before the lesson, immediately after the lesson and 9 weeks later to assess the impact the lesson had on school children’s knowledge and attitudes. This assessment was also undertaken in children who were exposed to the mass dog vaccination programme but did not receive the lesson. Knowledge of rabies and how to be safe around dogs increased following the lesson (both p<0.001), and knowledge remained higher than baseline 9 weeks after the lesson (both p<0.001). Knowledge of rabies and how to be safe around dogs was greater amongst school children who had received the lesson compared to school children who had not received the lesson, but had been exposed to a rabies vaccination campaign in their community (both p<0.001) indicating that the lesson itself was critical in improving knowledge. In summary, we have shown that a short, focused classroom-based lesson on rabies can improve short and medium-term rabies knowledge and attitudes of Malawian schoolchildren.

狂犬病是一种被忽视的重要疾病，每年导致约 59,000 人死亡。其中超过三分之一的死亡是 15 岁以下的儿童。非洲和亚洲几乎所有人类狂犬病死亡都是由受感染的狗咬伤造成的。尽管目前的狂犬病疫苗功效很高，但狂犬病流行地区对狂犬病预防保健的认识往往较低。因此，教育活动通常与其他狂犬病控制活动（例如大规模狗疫苗接种）一起进行，但很少有对教育活动的效果进行评估的例子。在这里，马拉维松巴的小学生接受了有关狂犬病生物学和预防保健的课程。随后，在同一地区实施了大规模的狗疫苗接种计划。通过课前、课后和9周后的问卷调查评估了学生对狂犬病的知识和态度，以评估课程对学童知识和态度的影响。这项评估也在接受过大规模狗疫苗接种计划但没有接受课程的儿童中进行。课程结束后，有关狂犬病以及如何在狗周围安全的知识有所增加（均 p<0.001），并且课程后 9 周知识仍高于基线（均 p<0.001）。与未接受课程但在社区中参加过狂犬病疫苗接种运动的学童相比，接受过课程的学童对狂犬病以及如何在狗周围安全的知识更多（均 p<0.001），表明课程本身对于提高知识至关重要。 总之，我们已经证明，简短、集中的狂犬病课堂课程可以提高马拉维学童的短期和中期狂犬病知识和态度。