Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Community towards an Onchocerciasis Elimination Program from South West Ethiopia

Abstract

Onchocerciasis is a neglected tropical disease that is prevalent throughout Africa, including developing countries such as Ethiopia. It affects around 37 million people, the majority of whom are from Africa. As a result, the study was designed to look into the community’s knowledge, attitude, and practice about the onchocerciasis elimination campaign. Four communities from Gesha town, Southwest Ethiopia, were chosen. The population was selected using a basic random selection procedure, and 312 people were identified for the study based on the eligibility requirements, with 302 (96.79%) of them responding correctly. The data were analyzed using the descriptive method with the SPSS program version 20. It was discovered that the majority of communities (89.4%) are aware of onchocerciasis. They also have a good awareness of the severity, preventability, therapy, and mode of transmission, yet they have certain misunderstandings. The communities attitude towards community directed therapy (CDT) using Ivermectin is positive (68.5%). According to 56% of the community, offering incentives for community drug distributors (CDD) has the potential to make the elimination campaign more successful. Different measures, such as avoiding any activities near the river, are important in the process of eradicating this disease at the community level. As a result, the respondent demonstrates that covering the lower body part lessens the black fly’s vulnerability because they may attack below the knee. In general, community awareness and attitude are required to eradicate this disease from the district. In addition, increased stakeholder participation and offering motivating rewards for CDT are required to make the elimination program a success.

Community’s knowledge, perceptions and preventive practices on Onchocerciasis in Jimma zone, Ethiopia, formative mixed study

“…This could be due to differences in sample size, study period, access to health information and geographical location. On the other hand, our result was much lower than the study done in Northwest Ethiopia 69.4% [ 2 ] and 73.8% in Gesha town, Southwest Ethiopia [ 49 ]. The possible reasons could be due to differences in study participants, study area and sociocultural differences.…”

“…This may be due to the fact that people who were aware of the disease’s mode of transmission, consequences, and preventive measures were more likely to adhere to its preventive measures, and it emphasizes the significance of health education as a means of encouraging proper community behavior in places where the disease is endemic. Knowledge of the disease has been one of the most crucial criteria for local campaigns to eradicate onchocerciasis and raise awareness of the issue [ 32 , 47 , 49 ]. Lack of knowledge is one of the challenges to eradicating onchocerciasis, as it is a critical component of effective prevention strategies [ 2 , 32 ].…”

“…A structured interviewer-administered tool that was developed from pertinent literatures [ 2 , 8 , 11 , 16 , 49 , 50 ] and adapted to the local context to ensure relevance and content validity was utilized. The questionnaire was then translated into Afan Oromo (local language), pre-tested in a similar area, and collected by trained data collectors with first degree holders.…”

“…Though Onchocerciasis is endemic in southwest Ethiopia [ 16 ], there is inadequate information regarding the community’s level of knowledge, perceptions and practices with respect to the control and preventions of Onchocerciasis. Moreover, there is little up-to-date information especially in the context of elimination targets, despite the fact that a few studies which attempted to assess community’s knowledge of Onchocerciasis and preventive practices in some parts of Ethiopia [ 2 , 16 , 49 , 50 ].…”

Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practices towards loiasis in the rural community of Sindara, in central African Gabon

“…However, this setting allowed us to interview almost one fifth of the entire adult population leading to high level of internal validity. Moreover, the overall sample size compares well with previous KAP surveys on other neglected parasitic diseases in different regions of Africa and Asia [17,18,24,25]. Since our results align in most parts with these previously conducted studies, we believe that our findings can be generalized to most rural populations in the Central African region.…”