Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward Lassa fever prevention and control among health care providers in Sabon Gari local government area, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease of public health concern causing recurrent outbreaks that often involve healthcare providers. Effective hospital infection control limits the impact of this disease. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of health care providers toward Lassa fever prevention and control in Sabon Gari local government area, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Materials and methods: It was a cross-sectional descriptive study in which data were collected using a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Associations between practice and other variables were tested using chi-square at P < 0.05. Results: A total of 131 health care providers participated in the study. Of these, 119 (96.0%) respondents were aware of Lassa fever. Overall a good knowledge of Lassa fever was only in 46 (35.1%) of them, while attitude toward prevention and control of Lassa fever was good in 110 (84.0%). However, only 91 (69.5%) had good practice of prevention and control of Lassa fever. Practice of prevention and control showed statistically significant association with knowledge (P = 0.01) and ethnicity (P = 0.006), but not with the other factors tested. Conclusion and recommendations: Despite the fairly good knowledge of Lassa fever, attitude and practice toward Lassa fever prevention and control were good. There is a need for continuous awareness of prevention and control among the health care providers.