Abstract
BackgroundOnchocerciasis is one of the most important public health problems over large areas of tropical Africa countries including Ethiopia. The African Program for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) has been working with ultimate goal of reducing the public health and socio-economic problems of onchocerciasis through administration of the tablet for continuous 12–15 years using the strategy of yearly community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) in endemic areas of Africa to kill the microfilariae that invade the eyes and are present in the skin to be transported to another victim by the black fly. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of community drug distributors (CDDs) towards onchocerciasis and CDTI in Quara district.ResultOf all the study participating CDD 11.4 % (9/79) said that they knew about the etiology of the disease, 35.4 % (28/79) had good level of knowledge, 19 (24.1 %) had good level of positive attitude and 18 (22.8 %) had good level of positive practice about onchocerciasis. Similarly, 45.6 % (36/79), 81.0 % (64/79) and 29.1 % (23/79) had good level of knowledge, attitude and practice about CDTIP, respectively. Being a female CDD (adjusted OR 7.246, P = 0.035, 95 % CI 1.147, 45.455) and being older than 35 years (adjusted OR 8.435, P = 0.001, 95 % CI 4.53, 9.003) were significantly associated with the likelihood of having good level of knowledge about the disease.ConclusionAlthough onchocerciasis is endemic in Quara district, large proportion of the CDDs had misconceptions about its causation, transmission and prevention. Therefore, CDTIP for onchocerciasis control need to be supported by proper and continuous training, and health education about different aspects of the disease.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-016-2010-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Onchocerciasis is one of the most important public health problems over large areas of tropical Africa countries including Ethiopia
Conclusion: onchocerciasis is endemic in Quara district, large proportion of the community drug distributors (CDDs) had misconceptions about its causation, transmission and prevention
Attitude and practice of the CDDs about onchocerciasis The level of knowledge, attitude and practice of respondents is summarized in Tables 2, 3 and 4
Summary
Onchocerciasis is one of the most important public health problems over large areas of tropical Africa countries including Ethiopia. The African Program for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) has been working with ultimate goal of reducing the public health and socio-economic problems of onchocerciasis through administration of the tablet for continuous 12–15 years using the strategy of yearly community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) in endemic areas of Africa to kill the microfilariae that invade the eyes and are present in the skin to be transported to another victim by the black fly. Onchocerciasis is one of the most important public health problems and widespread parasitic disease over 30 countries of tropical Africa and in six countries of Latin and Central America and one country in the Arabian Peninsula. An indicator of the impact of VISION 2020 is whether the prevalence of avoidable blindness is declining [11]
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