Abstract
BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) remains the prime killer disease among infectious diseases. TB control depends on early case detection and treatment in a directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) programme. The success of DOTS depends on the ability of the health care system to identify and properly manage TB cases. The present study aims to assess healthcare provider (HCP) knowledge, attitude and perceived stigma regarding TB and perception about traditional healers.MethodsA descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among 108 HCPs using a semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire from September 2014 to January 2015. The study district has a high TB burden area with one district hospital, 4 health centres, and 18 health posts. All health facilities and HCPs available during the study period in the district were included in the study. Statistical software for social science (SPSS) version 22 and STATA version 14 were used to enter and analyse data, respectively.ResultsThe majority (64%) of the HCPs had poor overall knowledge regarding TB, and 67.6 and 57.6% had poor knowledge regarding TB diagnosis and nature of the disease, respectively. Moreover, most 66.7 and 55.6% of the HCPs had an unfavourable attitude towards TB and TB control systems, respectively. Slightly under half (49.1%) of the HCPs had a favourable attitude towards TB patients, and the majority (88.9%) had low perceived stigma. The majority (87.0%) of the HCPs indicated the importance of community involvement in TB control activity. Moreover, most (60.2%) of the HCPs showed willingness to collaborate with traditional healers (THs) on TB control activity.ConclusionsHealthcare workers’ knowledge gap and unfavourable attitude towards TB control systems reported in this study may cause poor TB care delivery. HCPs’ perception of the importance of community involvement in TB control and willingness to collaborate with THs on TB management could be an opportunity to strengthen the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) component of End TB strategy through community engagement. Training and workshops could be used to address the knowledge gap and the unfavourable attitude regarding TB among HCPs.
Highlights
Tuberculosis (TB) remains the prime killer disease among infectious diseases
There was a total of 65 health extension workers (HEWs) and 46 other health professionals in the district, excluding the healthcare provider (HCP) working at Merti Hospital, which is not the administrative unit of the district health office but does provide services to the pastoralist community
In total, 108 HCPs participated in the study
Summary
Tuberculosis (TB) remains the prime killer disease among infectious diseases. TB control depends on early case detection and treatment in a directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) programme. The success of DOTS depends on the ability of the health care system to identify and properly manage TB cases. Ethiopia ranks among the 30 highest TB burden countries, with estimated incidence of 200,000 TB per 100,000 populations in 2015 It has fully integrated the World Health Organization (WHO) End TB strategy into the national TB prevention and care plan [2]. The success of directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) depends on the ability of the health care system to identify and properly manage TB cases. This requires active involvement of the HCPs in TB diagnosis and management [5, 6]. Failure to do so may result in the spread of TB and development of multi-drug resistant bacteria [7]
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