III.

Research Design and Methodology

3.1 Research Design

The research design uses quantitative research methods, wherein data obtained from face-to-
face interviews or physical counts through previous data were reliable and documented to generate
new information.

3.2 Research Methods

The data used by the researcher were collected through face to face interviews and getting a
printout data. Rabies surveillance data for the period between January 2017 and December 2018 were
retrieved from Regional Office consolidated report. These data included the number of rabies cases
reported in each animal species (cats and dogs), date of occurrence, and location. A case is defined as an
individual of any species of domestic animal (cats and dogs) in which rabies has been clinically
confirmed, based on epidemiologic investigations or laboratory examination of brain specimens. The
report rabies cases in cats and dogs over a period of 14 years (2005 to 2019) were then aggregated at
the sub-district level and used in subsequent analysis. A GIS (ArcGIS 9.3 ESRI) will used to visualize the
spatial distribution of rabies cases in dogs and cats. A global spatial autocorrelation statistic is used to
determine whether rabies case distributions, in dogs and cats, exhibited spatial patterns. Local clusters
of cases were investigated by estimating Anselin’s local indicator of spatial autocorrelation statistics. A
spatial interpolation analysis was also performed, using the centroid of each sub-district as a point layer,
to estimate a continuous distribution of rabies cases. An inverse distance weighting (IDW) method
(Spatial Analyst Tools; ArcGIS) was used to interpolate reported rabies cases in dogs and cats separately.
The IDW is a moving average or distance-weighted average method and assumes that each point. The
IDW assumes that each measured point has a local influence that diminishes with distance. For example,
to predict values surroundings the prediction a value for any unmeasured location, IDW uses the
measured values surrounding the prediction location (Spatial Analyst Tools; ArcGIS 9.3). The resulting
interpolation was then displayed as a continuous, graduated color surface of the centroid of each
reported sub-district for cats and dogs separately.
RESULTS

A total of 20 animal rabies cases were reported between 2017 and 2018, with most of the cases in cats
0% and dogs 100%.

Table

Total number of reported rabies cases in domestic dogs and cats within Region VIII, 2017 to 2019.

HUMAN RABIES DEATHS (2017) HUMAN RABIES DEATHS (2018)

Province/City Municipality # of Cases

Leyte Carigara 2
San Isidro 1
Albuera 1
Tanauan 1
Baybay City 1
Ormoc City 1
Eastern Samar Llorente 1
Samar Sta. Rita 1
North Samar Lavezares 2
Laoang 1
TOTAL 12

Figure 1 Illustrates the Yearly distribution of reported rabies cases in animals. Cases were commonly
reported in North Samar. The distribution of reported rabies cases was strongly clustered in dogs.

References

Anselin L. (1995). – Local indicators of spatial association – LISA. Geog. Anal., 27, 94-115.

Anselin L. (2005). – Exploring spatial data with GeoDatM: a workbook. Spatial Analysis Laboratory,
Department of Geography, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, 244 pp.

Belotto A., Leanes L.F., Schneider M.C., Tamayo H. & Barrat J. (2003) – A dog rabies vaccination
campaign in rural Africa: impact on the incidence of dog rabies and human dog-bite injuries. Vaccine, 21,
1965-1973