Abstract
Background: The healthcare workers are leading the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and are at great risk of acquiring the infection. The information on the knowledge and attitude of healthcare workers towards SARS‐CoV-2 is useful to plan awareness and educational programs. Aim: To assess the knowledge and attitude of healthcare workers toward SARS‐CoV-2 in Mirpur, AJK, Pakistan. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed during March and April 2020, on 468 healthcare workers in a tertiary care divisional headquarters teaching hospital of Mirpur, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data through a face to face approach. The data were organized and statistically analyzed through SPSS version 21.0. Results: A total of 520 healthcare workers were approached and 468 of them filled and returned the questionnaire, giving a response rate of 90.0%. The age range of the participants was 18 to 59 years with a mean of 31.5 ± 4.9 years. The majority of respondents were males (62.4%) and more than half of the participants (62.1%) had knowledge of the SARS‐CoV-2 outbreak and their main source of information was television (51.2%). Overall, 60.6% had sufficient knowledge of the disease and 79.7% had a positive attitude towards SARS‐CoV-2. Conclusion: The outcomes of our study revealed that overall healthcare workers had an acceptable level of knowledge and a positive attitude towards the SARS‐CoV-2 outbreak.
Highlights
The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December
60.6% had sufficient knowledge of the disease and 79.7% had a positive attitude towards SARS‐CoV-2
The outcomes of our study revealed that overall healthcare workers had an acceptable level of knowledge and a positive attitude towards the SARS‐CoV-2 outbreak
Summary
The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December. As of August 24, 2020, the disease has so far infected more than 23.4 million people killing an estimated 0.890 million people globally [1]. The WHO declared the SARS‐CoV-2 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in January and a pandemic in early March [2]. Pakistan has an international border with the People's Republic of China and took all necessary measures to limit the disease transmission in the country. The earliest infected cases in Pakistan were primarily those traveling from Iran and Saudi Arabia. The healthcare workers are leading the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and are at great risk of acquiring the infection. The information on the knowledge and attitude of healthcare workers towards SARS‐CoV-2 is useful to plan awareness and educational programs
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