Abstract

BackgroundEbola virus disease (EVD) is a severe, often fatal illness in humans and nonhuman primates caused by the Ebola virus. The recently approved rVSV-EBOV vaccine is not available in many high-risk countries hence prevention is paramount. The design of effective prevention interventions requires an understanding of the factors that expose communities at risk. It was based on this that we investigated the Baka community of Abong-Mbang Health District in tropical rain forest of Cameroon.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted with participants randomly selected from 13 villages in Abong-Mbang by multi-stage cluster sampling. A questionnaire was administered to them to collect demographic information, data on knowledge of EVD, their feeding and health-seeking behaviour. Data was analyzed using the chi-square test. Knowledge of EVD was assessed using an 8 item Morisky Scale. An adapted Threat Capability Basic Risk Assessment Guide was used to determine their risk of exposure to infection.ResultsA total of 510 participants, most of whom were hunters (31.4%), farmers (29.8%), and had primary education (62.7%), were included in this study. Although 83.3% participants had heard of EVD, most (71%) did not know its cause. Their source of information was mainly informal discussions in the community (49%). Misconceptions were identified with regards to the cause and mode of transmission. Only 43.1% accepted EVD could be transmitted from human-to-human. Generally, participants’ knowledge of EVD was poor. Demographic factors such as level of education, occupation and ethnic group significantly affected knowledge of EVD. The majority of participants were at a very high risk of exposure to infection as they consumed various forms of bush meat and were involved in other risky practices such as scarification and touching of corpses. Although over half of participants seek medical care, most of them preferred traditional medicine. Socio-cultural and service-related factors were deterrent factors to medical care.ConclusionParticipants generally had poor knowledge of EVD and were at high risk of infection. We recommend rigorous sensitization campaigns in the study area to educate the population on EVD and clarify the misconceptions identified. EVD surveillance is recommended particularly as outbreaks have often been reported in the Congo Basin.

Highlights

  • Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe, often fatal illness in humans and nonhuman primates caused by the Ebola virus

  • Health talk was reported by a very small proportion (3%) of participants. This is disturbing as informal discussions in a community with such a low level of education as observed in the Baka community could have far reaching consequences as wrong information could be circulated and in the event of an outbreak of EVD, such information may contribute to more exposures to infection

  • Conclusion the majority of the Baka community was aware of EVD, their knowledge on its cause and transmission was poor

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Summary

Introduction

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a severe, often fatal illness in humans and nonhuman primates caused by the Ebola virus. Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a fatal illness affecting humans and nonhuman primates caused by tEbola virus, a member of the family Filoviridae. Outbreaks in humans have been caused by four of the six species of Ebola virus: Zaire, Bundibugyo, Taї Forest and Sudan [5]. Ebola virus was discovered during simultaneous outbreaks of febrile illness with shock and hemorrhage in Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC (former Zaire) in 1976 [6]. The largest and deadliest outbreak ever registered occurred in 2014 and was caused by Zaire ebolavirus. It resulted in a very high case-fatality ratio of up to 90% [8]. Following the West African outbreak in 2014, it has become a global public health security threat [9]

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