Abstract
Japanese encephalitis is a serious vector borne viral zoonotic disease, particularly in Asia and Northern Australia. In Nepal, JE cases were reported in 63 out of 75 districts up until the year 2005. The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) toward JE and associated factors. A structured questionnaire was used to gather information on the KAP of people in endemic areas. Accordingly, 397 respondents demonstrated a desirable attitude, while half of the population exhibited desirable knowledge and practices. Age was found to be a significant factor for knowledge, wherein the senior population had better awareness of the vectors of JE. Moreover, education and occupation were found to be significant factors for KAP scores with an increase in level of education leading to an increase in desirable characteristics. This study determined that the characteristics of the surrounding environment were prominent factors. A significant number of people were not aware of the JE vaccine even though the government has made it available to most of the population of Nepal. Thus, more effective awareness programs should be implemented to increase the KAP of the population with regard to JE.
Highlights
Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is one of the most common and serious vector-borne viral encephalitis diseases worldwide, in Asia, many Western Pacific countries and northern Australia
Demographic information In total, 397 people were interviewed for this study including 208 (52.39%) people living in high endemic areas and 189 people (47.61%) living in low endemic areas
Nepal is venerable to JE and other such vector borne diseases due to environmental conditions such as the presence of animals in human habitations, the presence of water bodies at short intervals and the prominence of migratory birds (Ghimire and Dhakal, 2015)
Summary
Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is one of the most common and serious vector-borne viral encephalitis diseases worldwide, in Asia, many Western Pacific countries and northern Australia. It is a mosquito borne zoonotic disease caused by an airborne virus in the genus Flavivirus and family Flaviviradae. Birds act as natural reservoirs that do not display clinical signs, while pigs can act as amplifiers. This is often evidenced by the occurrence of stillborn or weak piglets (Pant, 2006; Shimizu et al, 1954; Wang and Liang, 2015). There have been an estimated 30,000–50,000 cases of human JE and 10,000–15,000 human deaths annually (Campbell et al, 2011)
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