Healthcare professionals' awareness, knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and beliefs about Ebola at Gondar University Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study
J. Public Health Africa (Online)
;
7(2): 55-60, 2016. tab
Article
in English
| AIM
| ID: biblio-1263251
ABSTRACT
A poor understanding of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) among Health Care Professionals (HCPs) may put our lives at risk. We aimed to assess the awareness, knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, beliefs of HCPs towards Ebola at Gondar University Hospital (GUH) in Northwest Ethiopia. We conducted a hospital based, cross-sectional survey among 245 randomly selected HCPs working at GUH from August-October, 2015. A validated, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. We calculated descriptive statistics with P0.05 being statistically significant. Of the 245 participants, 211 (86.1%) completed the study. The majority had heard about EVD and used news media (62%) as a source of information. Still, many were afraid of getting EVD (56.4%; P=0.001). A significant number of HCPs thought EVD can cause paralysis like polio (45%) and can be treated with antibiotics (28.4%). In addition, 46.4% of the HCPs felt anger or fear towards Ebola infected patients (P=0.006). We identified poor knowledge and negative incorrect beliefs among doctors and allied health professionals. There is a need for intensive training for all HCPs reduce EVD risk
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Index:
AIM (Africa)
Main subject:
Awareness
/
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
/
Health Personnel
/
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola
/
Ethiopia
/
Hospitals, University
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prevalence study
/
Qualitative research
/
Risk factors
Country/Region as subject:
Africa
Language:
English
Journal:
J. Public Health Africa (Online)
Year:
2016
Type:
Article
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