Risk communication sources and knowledge of Lassa fever in Nigeria: An impact analysis

Modeling Lassa fever in Nigeria with perception of risk

“…This might be due to the "COVID-19 effect" since the entire world was focus on the COVID-19 pandemic at the expense of other communicable diseases. Furthermore, in 2019, Alenoghena and Omuemuthe 14 revealed overall good perception of risk of Lassa fever (with odds ratio=3.806; 95 CI = 1.498-9.672, p=0.005) among residents of two rural communities in Edo State, Nigeria which is one of Lassa fever hot-spots states 2,16 , good knowledge of the disease was the only significant predictor of good perception of risk of Lassa fever. Tobin et al 36 confirmed the high level of perception of risk in their 2019 post-outbreak assessment of community knowledge and perception of Lassa fever and risk factors in Edo state, They showed that about 99.1% of the 113 respondents had high level of knowledge and perception of Lassa fever risk in addition to awareness of the disease, also 68.2% of the respondents (78 10/26 11/26 individuals) had good knowledge and only 7.1% of the respondents (8 individuals) had poor knowledge of Lassa fever.…”

“…These behavioral changes are moderated by several factors like people's beliefs, information about a disease in the media like radio, television, newspaper or social media like Facebook 23 . Ben-Enukora et al 16 examined the risk communication sources and knowledge of Lassa fever in Ebonyi, Edo and Ondo, the three most endemic states in the country 2 . Their results revealed that major sources of information about Lassa fever in these states are radio, posters and healthcare workers.…”

“…Their results revealed that major sources of information about Lassa fever in these states are radio, posters and healthcare workers. Most of the respondents in the study had adequate knowledge of the Lassa fever risk factors, the vector, transmission routes, and ways to preventive the disease, however, they lack adequate knowledge regarding asymptomatic patients 16 . According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 4 , 80% of Lassa fever cases are asymptomatic.…”

“…Despite adequate knowledge, and awareness about the risk of Lassa fever demonstrated either within the hot-spots communities 14,16,19,37 or among healthcare workers 17,[38][39][40] , cases continue to increase; between epidemiological weeks 1 and 15 of 2023 (week ending 16 April) 4702 suspected cases have been reported with five probable cases, and 877 confirmed cases. There have been 152 deaths among the confirmed cases; these numbers are more than the previous years.…”

“…There are two parts to perception of risk: the cognitive part, which refers to people's knowledge and understanding of risks, and the emotional part, which refers to how people feel for instance about a disease 12,13 . Numerous studies have been done to consider the people's perception of risk to Lassa fever [14][15][16][17][18][19] exploring people's knowledge, attitude, and practices about the disease either at rural community level or among healthcare works. However, very few mathematical modeling studies have examined how human behavioral changes influences the disease dynamics 20 .…”