Social Awareness and Knowledge of Parenteral Viral Hepatitis (B and C) Among Residences of Menoufia Governorate, Egypt: A Questionnaire-Based Field Study

Abstract

Egypt had led a unique successful campaign in treating and surveillance of the most prevalent viral infections. However, social awareness evaluation is an unmet need for viral eradication strategic plans. Assess the level of knowledge and awareness of the community about HCV and HBV infections. This community-based cross-sectional survey, was conducted between November 2018 and March 2019 in Menofia Governorate, Egypt. A well-structured pretested questionnaire testing knowledge and awareness regarding HBV and HCV infections and their modes of transmission in 14000 medical and non-medical, urban and rural participants. Knowledge about HBV found to be good regarding transmission (81.9% correct answers), while in cure 51.7% of participants gave false answers. For HCV infection, good knowledge (79.3% of correct answers) was documented, while the curable nature of disease was denied in 40.9%. Blood and blood products (53.2%), sexual contact (27.8%), mother to child during delivery (7.3%) and others were reported as the commonest modes of transmission of HCV respectively. Television and newspapers were the main sources of knowledge (33 and 22% respectively). On asking participants about precautions against HCV infections, 30.2% stated that they are being educated on this issue, 22.3% had heard something like that and 47.5% of participants did not know anything about that. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that for both HBV and HCV knowledge and awareness were affected by age, residence and level of education. Despite the good results, levels of social awareness should be more elevated for proper viral eradication programs.