Cross-Sectional Study Assessing the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of the Community towards Ebola Virus Disease in an Urban Setting in Western Uganda - Abstract
Background: Epidemics are devastating as they cause mortality, and morbidity and are associated with a lot of stigma. Uganda experienced an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) for 4 months from September 2022 to January 2023. Ebola Virus, from the filoviridae family, is a highly contagious viral hemorrhagic infection with a mortality rate of up to 90%. Of 164 cases, 18 were health workers, of whom 7 died. Health professions students formed a part of these health workers, and are frontline providers in managing epidemics through community interventions such as prevention, preparedness, and emergency response. They are often involved in initial clinical care, and are also custodians of knowledge, availing a large workforce that can be leveraged amongst their non-medical communities. This project targeted prevention, preparedness, and response to the current and future EVD epidemics within Mbarara through capacity building and information sharing led by health professional students. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. Needs assessment tools including questionnaires and checklists were developed using WHO information on EBV and past COVID-19 recommendations. This needs assessment involved four main phases including training, mapping, KIIs/FGDs/questionnaires, and finally IEC distribution. Data collection was done by 21 undergraduate and postgraduate (Emergency medicine) students who had been trained on the current approach to EVD to enable evidence-based communication among the potential participants. Using researcher-administered hard copy and self-administered electronic questionnaires, we evaluated the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions on EBV, among 220 participants including health professions students, health care providers, and the mapped communities. After establishing the baseline, Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) materials on EVD were put up in health centers, markets, worship centers, and institutional premises parallel with sensitization of community members on the information on the flyers in the local language. Results: Males and females equally participated in the survey and the majority of the respondents (94.7%) had heard about EBVD. More market vendors and traders were aware of EBV with the most common sources of information being radio stations (75.3%) followed by television (65.3%). Participants believed that Ebola could be prevented by wearing face masks, these were sensitized about Ebola not being an airborne illness like COVID-19, however, face masks are important to prevent the spread of COVID-19 amidst EBV (to prevent coinfection). There were significant gaps in baseline knowledge of signs and symptoms of Ebola among different categories, highlighted among community leaders. In addition, many did not know the standard personal protective equipment needed before handling a person suspected to be infected with Ebola. Conclusion: There is a need to educate the community, healthcare workers, and health Professional students about the Ebola virus disease and other epidemic diseases as a way of ensuring preparedness for this health workforce to combat them in the future. There is a need for more studies to be done to
find out the role these various population sects can play in epidemic response.