Knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward onchocerciasis among local population in Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea

Introduction: Since 1998, the African program for onchocerciasis control has been working with ultimate goal of reducing the public health impact associated with onchocerciasis in Equatorial Guinea. Although dedicated community engagement is crucial for the success of this program, there is no information on the levels of community's knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward onchocerciasis in this country. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Bioko Island from mid-January to mid-February 2014. Sampling was carried out by multistage cluster survey. Sociodemographic characteristics, KAP, and stigma-related questions were collected through a pretested questionnaire. A bivariate analysis was performed and results were adjusted by sex and age using logistic regression. Results: A total of 140 housekeepers or head of households agreed to participate. Around 54% of the interviewees had heard about the disease, of which more than one-third identified the disease as filariasis (28/68, 41.2%). Overall, 19.3% respondents highlighted the bite of a blackfly as the main mode of transmission. From those who had a familiar affected by onchocerciasis in the past, 21 out of 32 (65.6%) pointed ivermectin as the preferred treatment and 43.8% pointed out the health center as the first choice place to seek for treatment. About 67.1% of individuals believed that having onchocerciasis would not cause any contact avoidance with other members in the community. Conclusions: People's practices toward onchocerciasis tend to be better than disease knowledge in Bioko Island. Increasing awareness through community-based campaigns and educational activities is encouraged in the current onchocerciasis preelimination stage at Bioko Island

Accuracy of an Immunochromatographic Diagnostic Test (ICT Malaria Combo Cassette Test) Compared to Microscopy among under Five-Year-Old Children when Diagnosing Malaria in Equatorial Guinea

Conventional malaria diagnosis based on microscopy raises serious difficulties in weak health systems. Cost-effective and sensitive rapid diagnostic tests have been recently proposed as alternatives to microscopy. In Equatorial Guinea; a study was conducted to assess the reliability of a rapid diagnostic test compared to microscopy. The study was designed in accordance with the directives of the Standards for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy Initiative (STARD). Peripheral thick and thin films for the microscopy diagnosis and a rapid immunochromatographic test (ICT Malaria Combo Cassette Test) were performed on under five-year-old children with malaria suspicion. The ICT test detected Plasmodium spp. infection with a sensitivity of 81.5and a specificity of 81.9while P. falciparum diagnosis occurred with a sensitivity of 69.7and a specificity of 73.7. The sensitivity of the ICT test increased with higher parasitemias. The general results showed little concordance between the ICT test and microscopy (kappa = 0.28; se: 0.04). In Equatorial Guinea; the ICT Malaria Combo Cassette Test has proven to be an acceptable test to detect high P. falciparum parasitemias. However; the decrease of sensitivity at medium and low parasitemias hampers that ICT can replace properly performed microscopy at present in the diagnosis of malaria in children