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Background: Dengue fever is the most important mosquito-borne disease that has rapidly spread in tropical regions of the world in recent years. Due to absence of vaccine, the only method available is to prevent and control dengue is by preventing transmission of the disease. However, the control needs support, cooperation and participation from community. The objective of this study is to assess the current level of knowledge, attitude and practice toward dengue fever among the community living in rural area, beside to ascertain the association between those three domains, and to evaluate the effect of sociodemographic factors toward them.Methods: A cross sectional survey was performed among 202 respondents dwelling in rural area, whom were selected through stratified random sampling. Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward dengue fever were assessed through a set of self-administered validated questionnaire.Results: The community had moderate level of knowledge (64.4%), positive attitude (79.7%), and good level of practices (65.3%) on dengue fever. Television was the main source of information on dengue fever (76.2%). From the result, there were significant association between level of education with practice on dengue fever (p=0.001). The result also shown that there was significant association between knowledge and practice in the community (p=0.008).Conclusions: More health education programmes should be organized to increase knowledge and help the translation of knowledge into practice of prevention.
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Background: Vertical transmission is an important route of transmission for hepatitis B virus infection. Despitethe introduction of HBV vaccine in the extended immunization program in 2005, Cameroonhas remained a hyper-endemic area. The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis B Virus among antenatal clinic attenders in Penka-Michel-Cameroon, and to identify potential risk factors associated with the infection for a better prevention of the disease.Original Research Article Study Design:The study was a case control study conducted in four reference hospitals in Penka-Michel, a rural area in west region of Cameroon during April to July 2014. Methodology: Six hundred and forty three(643) pregnant women were recruited. The DiaSpot HBsAgin vitrodiagnostic test strips were first used. Positive samples were further confirmed for HBsAg, HBeAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBe and anti-HBc using an immunoassay kit. Liver enzymes (ALT, AST and ALP) were also evaluatedfor HBsAg positive samplesusing TECO DIAGNOSTICSkit. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information on sociodemographic parameters and predisposing risk factors of hepatitis B from each patient. Data collected was analyzed using Graph Pad prism version 5.03. Results: The prevalence of hepatitis B infection (HBsAg) in our setting was 4.7%. Fifty percent of HBsAg positive women were also HBeAg positive and 46.7% of them lack antibodies against hepatitis B e antigen. All the HBsAg positive women had previous contact with HBV and just 3.3% of them were immunized against HBV. Women in the age groups 31–35 years were significantly more affected (X216.95, P= .0045). Only a history of a contact with hepatitis B infection was significantly associated with HBsAg and HBeAg positivity (X2 27.45, P= .0001; X225.31, P= .0003).Conclusion:Administration of HBIG in combination with hepatitis B vaccine as post-exposure prophylaxis for infants born to HBV infected mothers is of paramount importance. In addition, universal HBsAg screening of all pregnant women will greatly assist in reducing the maternal transmission of HBV in Cameroon.