KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION AND PRACTICE AMONG AGBOWO COMMUNITY RELATING TO LASSA FEVER, IBADAN, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The emergence and the occurrence of highly virulent and contagious Lassa virus in many districts and states in endemic countries of the West African sub-region and the increasing sporadic cases of Lassa fever outside the endemic regions within and outside Africa as a result of huge inter-border traffic and international travels, necessitates that health care providers as well as the general populace should have comprehensive information about the virus and the disease it causes. Several works have been done on prevalence as well as the causes but little research effort has been directed towards knowledge, perception and practice relating to lassa fever. Therefore this study investigated knowledge, perception and practice of residents of Agbowo community relating to lassa fever, Oyo State, Nigeria Descriptive cross-sectional survey research design was adopted. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 276 respondents in the community. A validated self-developed questionnaire (r=.73) was used as instrument for data collection. Knowledge was assessed on a 28-point scale and score was categorized as good (20-28), (14-19) score as fair and <13 was categorized as poor. Data from the questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of chi-square test at significant level. Respondents’ age was 35.8±15.5 and majority (56.2%) of the respondents being in the range of (25-29) years. Majority (60.9%) of the respondents was married, 56.5% of the respondents had tertiary education, (41.7%) had secondary education, (1.4%) had primary education while those that had no formal education were (0.4%). Majority (81.6%) accounted for monogamous family while (18.4%) were from polygamous family. Age, gender, awareness and level of education had significant association between mean knowledge score of the respondents. Half of the respondents (58.7%) reported that LF can mainly be caused by arena-viruses and those who disagreed accounted for (13.4%) while those who were undecided accounted for (27.5%). Few (12.3%) of the respondents agreed that there is an immunization against LF in Nigeria, (23.9%) of the respondents were undecided and (63.8%) disagree. 1.4% of the respondents agreed that Lassa fever cannot be prevented, (9.1%) were undecided while 87.0% of the respondents disagreed. Most (50.0%) of the respondents reported frequently spreading their food items in an open space to dry, 24.3% reported occasionally spreading of food items in an open space to dry, 17.0% of the respondents rarely spread their food items in an open space to dry while 1.1% reported never spreading their food items in an open space to dry. Awareness of the disease was very high among the respondents but some practices exhibited by the respondents were not hygienic which could promote the future occurrence and incidence of the disease. Community mobilization, awareness, continuous sensitization and public enlightenment should be instituted by government and health authorities as well as media houses to curtail and prevent the spread of the disease.