Awareness and Practice of Lassa Fever Prevention among Health Workers in a Tertiary Health Facility in a Southern Nigerian City

Abstract

Background: The Lassa fever outbreak has claimed the lives of numerous healthcare personnel in recent years and this reflects the poor infection prevention control practices and ill-preparedness for such contagious epidemic. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the knowledge and quality of practice with regard to prevention of Lassa fever transmission among health workers. Methods: In this cross sectional study 230 health workers including intern nurses & doctors were assessed using pretested self- administered questionnaire adopting the WHO & Nigerian Centre for Disease and Control (NCDC) recommended prevention protocols against the deadly virus. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science version 25. Results: Two hundred and twenty-four completed questionnaire (97.4% response rate) were analyzed. A vast majority 172 (76.8%) possessed satisfactory knowledge about Lassa fever transmission and infection prevention whereas only 77(44%) actively practiced the recommended protocols for infection prevention against Lassa fever virus satisfactorily. In the regression analysis, duration of service was the only significant factor positively associated with satisfactory knowledge on Lassa fever infection prevention (X 2 9 (0.05) = 19.559, P value= 0.001) . Almost all the participants practiced hand washing before and after attending to patients. However, only 1.34% of the respondents utilized full personal protective equipment (PPE) kits consistently while attending to high risk patients. Overall, their infection preventive practices were not significantly influenced by their occupation designation (P=0.586), duration of service or training in years and demographic profile such as: gender (P=0.118), age (P=0.840), marital status (P=0.819) and residing in urban area (P = 0.561). There was a weak positive correlation between knowledge scores and practice scores (r=0.137). Conclusion: It is recommended that the standard infection prevention practice protocols be adopted consistently in caring for patients with suspected or confirmed endemic viral infection like Lassa fever. Hospital management and policy makers should provide adequate PPE to minimize nosocomial infection in healthcare workers. Regular hospital-based seminars on infection prevention is recommended. Keywords: Nosocomial infection, hand washing, personal protective equipment, healthcare workers, endemic viral infection. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-7-08 Publication date: March 31 st 2022