Do people know adequately about leptospirosis? A knowledge assessment survey in post-outbreak situation in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Objectives: Sri Lanka experienced the worst ever outbreak of leptospirosis in 2008. One major determinant of control and pre-vention of communicable diseases is public awareness on the dis-ease. The purpose of the present study was to determine the awareness on leptospirosis among public Sri Lanka. Methods: A national household survey was carried out as a part of research methodology training of first year medical undergradu-ates in Rajarata Medical School. Each student visited 10 house-holds surrounding his/her house to complete the interviewer ad-ministered questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on the factsheet published by the Epidemiology Unit for public health. Results: Altogether 602 participants from 14 districts participated in the study. Of them 93.7% were aware of rat as a reservoir ani-mal, but only 3% were aware of the role of cattle and buffalo. Contact with infected water as a mode of transmission was re-ported by 57.9% of the population. Only 30.8% of the subjects were aware of that the infection can go through skin breeches. Farming as a risk activity was reported by 63.5% of the patients, but knowledge on other exposure activities were less than 20%. Paddy field work and cleaning garbage were correctly identified as risk occupations by 89.7% and 27.6% of the sample, respectively. Respondents were aware of fever (86%), malaise (30.8%), headache (29.6%) and muscle tenderness (28.8%) as main clinical features of the disease. Most of them (73.7%) knew leptospirosis as a lethal condition and 39.5% were aware of chemoprophylaxis. Conclusions: Although there is not adequate information on MDD prevalence in some areas of Iran, the overall current preva-lence of MDD in the country is high and females are at the greater risk of disease.

Keywords

• Leptospirosis; Knowledge; Sri Lanka