Abstract
The current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted and changed lives on a global scale since its emergence and spread from China in late 2019. It has caused millions of infections, and thousands of deaths worldwide. However, the control of this pandemic still remains unachievable in many African countries including Egypt and Nigeria, despite the application of some strict preventive and control measures. Therefore, this study assessed the knowledge, attitude, and perceptions of Egyptians and Nigerians towards the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was designed as a cross-sectional community-based questionnaire survey in both countries. Participants’ demography, knowledge, attitude, and perceptions towards the COVID-19 outbreak were obtained using a convenience sampling technique. Data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis. A total of 1437 respondents were included in this preliminary report. The mean knowledge score was 14.7±2.3. The majority of the respondents (61.6%) had a satisfactory knowledge of the disease. Age (18–39 years), education (College/bachelors), and background of respondents were factors influencing knowledge levels. The attitude of most respondents (68.9%) towards instituted preventive measures was satisfactory with an average attitude score of 6.9 ± 1.2. The majority of the respondents (96%) practiced self-isolation and social-distancing but only 36% follow all health recommendations. The perception of most respondents (62.1%) on the global efforts at controlling the virus and preventing further spread was satisfactory with an average score of 10.9 ± 2.7. Only 22% of the respondents were satisfied with their country’s handling of the pandemic. An apprehensive understanding of the current status in Africa through studies like KAP is crucial to avoid Africa being the next epicenter of the pandemic. For the populace to follow standard infection prevention and control measures adequately, governments need to gain the trust of citizens by strengthening the health systems and improving surveillance activities in detecting cases, to offer the optimum health services to their communities.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO), on December 31, 2019, received a report of the presence of unknown causes of pneumonia disease in Wuhan, China [1]
The novel virus was renamed by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes the 2019 Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) [3, 4]
We investigated the KAP of participants from two African countries (Egypt and Nigeria), towards the COVID-19 outbreak
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO), on December 31, 2019, received a report of the presence of unknown causes of pneumonia disease in Wuhan, China [1]. As of June 29, 2020, there are more than 382, 600 confirmed cases, above 9700 deaths, and around 147,000 recoveries due to COVID19 in Africa [13], with approximately 24% of these cases from Egypt and Nigeria alone To stop this pandemic, it is imperative to institute effective infection prevention and control practices globally, nationally, and at the community level. The information generated from such studies, in addition to comprehensive reviews and recommendations, could help in the fight against COVID-19 and similar future threats [14,15,16,17] by improving the awareness level of the citizens and encourage positive attitudes which are necessary to beat the pandemic These are necessary for both countries especially with the onset of community spread of the disease. Findings from this study would contribute to the global efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic
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