Abstract
Background: The current resurgence and transmission dynamics of Lassa fever (LF) within an endemic community in Nigeria calls for concern. Lassa fever virus is known to be transmitted from rodents to humans as well as from human to human. This study aims to compare the knowledge, attitude/practices and prevention of Community dwellers (CD) and Contacts of confirmed Lassa fever patients (CCP) with respect to LF in an endemic area in Nigeria. Methodology: This is a comparative cross-sectional study conducted between 2018 and 2019 during an outbreak of LF disease in Ondo State, Nigeria. A total of 250 consenting CD and 104 CCP were randomly selected to participate in this study. They were administered semi-structured questionnaires which were analysed using SPSSv23. Lassa fever disease causative agents, mode of transmission and prevention as well as actions on response to Lassa virus infections were assessed among respondents. Data were analysed and presented using descriptive statistics at 95% confidence interval and (p<0.05) level of significance. Results: The gender distribution for CD was 116 males and 134 females while for CCP, it was 43 males and 61 females. Furthermore, radio (CD= 55.8%, CCP= 20.8%) and public health campaign (CD= 40.4%, CCP= 26.5%) were the major sources of information on Lassa fever among respondents. A larger fraction of CCP (12.5%) erroneously believe mosquitoes are the mode of transmission of Lassa fever compared to CD (4.2%). Comparison also showed that higher proportion (60.6%) of CCP exhibits poor attitude/practices to Lassa fever infection compared to 4% of CD. Level of education for both CD and CCP respondents were statistically significantly associated with knowledge and prevention of Lassa fever. Conclusion: Comparatively, our study showed poor awareness on Lassa fever diseases, erroneous believes and need for positive attitudinal changes and practices towards LF prevention and control in affected communities.
Highlights
Lassa fever is identified as an acute haemorrhagic infection caused by the Lassa virus, a bi-segmented ambisense single-stranded RNA virus that belongs to the family Arenaviridiae
The majority of the respondents fall within the age group category of 41 - 50 (34.0%) for community dwellers (CD) and 21-30 (25.0%) years for contacts of confirmed patients (CCP) with a mean age of 39.1(±10.9) and 35.3(±16.3), respectively
The association between Community Dwellers and Contact of Confirmed Patients for age group, marital status and level of education were statistically significant as p
Summary
Lassa fever is identified as an acute haemorrhagic infection caused by the Lassa virus, a bi-segmented ambisense single-stranded RNA virus that belongs to the family Arenaviridiae It was first described in 1969 in the town of Lassa located in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria [1]. Lassa fever is zoonotic and is transferred from rodents to humans, through the multimammate rat, (Mastomys natalensis) These rats are typically found in households and human settlements, and cause infections via food contaminated with their faeces or urine [6], [7], [3] or when they are consumed as food [7]. The virus has the capacity for person-to-person spread, either within households, during care for sick relatives or in health care settings [9]
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