Assessment Of Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices Among Health Care Workers Towards Lassa Fever In 5 Health Facilities Of Faranah District In Upper Guinea

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Lassa fever (LF) is a zoonotic acute viral haemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus (LASV). Nosocomial infection with high case fatality rate of the disease has been described primarily in the hospital settings in many West African countries including Guinea. The nosocomial spread is due to the current state of the health system, leading to poor medical practice. Hospitalized patients with LF may pose a substantial risk to health care workers (HCWs) and to other patients (Lavergne et al., 2016). Late diagnosis and wrong treatment are factors that can increase the likelihood of nosocomial transmission. Therefore, it is important that health care providers working in endemic communities have adequate knowledge on the disease, its clinical features and diagnosis (Ea, Da, Ec, Og, & Ebhodaghe, 2013).

Objectives: The study assessed knowledge, attitudes and practices and determined factors influencing them among health care providers working in five health facilities of Faranah district in upper Guinea (the general hospitals, two health centres in the urban area and another two health centres in the urban area). 

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey and quantitative approach was used to collect data. Pre-coded structured questionnaire were used to conduct interviews. All health professionals who were working in these selected health facilities were enrolled into the study, if found eligible. Statistical analysis was done in Stata (version 14.1) Software. Frequency distribution was done to compute proportions on good KAP, gender, religion, educational level, and occupation. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to assess the strength of association between the knowledge and attitudes and each independent variable to assess the strength of association looking at the adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results: Sixty-three out of the 195 respondents (32.3%) had no idea what Lassa fever was. Of the remaining one hundred and thirty-two, 67.7% (132/195) who had heard about Lassa fever, their knowledge was accessed with a sixteen item questionnaire on knowledge according to case definition. Nearly forty-nine percent (64/132) had good knowledge about Lassa fever (p = 0.485; 95% CI = 0.4 – 0.6). Ninety-five percent of health professionals (186/195) were found to have good attitude towards a suspected case of Lassa fever (p = 0.95; 95% CI = 0.91 – 0.97). With regards to practice, all health professionals had good practices in dealing with a suspicious case of Lassa fever.

Conclusion: The study revealed a general low level of knowledge of LF disease among the HCWs. Most of the HCWs had good attitudes and all of them had good practices towards LF. Age and number of years of work were found to influence knowledge but not attitudes and practices. There was not statistical significant difference in the KAP of HCWs working in the general hospital compare to those working in the health centres. HCWs in urban HC had better attitude compare to those in the rural ones.  The Ministry of Health, Guinea should plan more training on Lassa Fever with emphasis on other professionals as much as medical doctors.