Changing attitudes and behaviour towards bats by communities that live close to bat roosts after the 2013 Ebola viral disease outbreak in West Africa

Abstract

# Background The 2013 Ebola virus disease (EVD) that hit parts of West Africa has been described as one of the largest outbreaks in recent decades. The outbreak was triggered by the spillover of pathogens from bats to human populations. In Ghana, bats pose a significant risk to humans because interactions between bats and human beings are common, and the *henipahvirus* and Ebola virus have been discovered in bats and in pigs. We investigated whether there had been a change in the way people who live close to bat roosts interact with bats in the wake of the 2013 EVD outbreak. # Methods Questionnaires were distributed to 544 respondents drawn from five communities that live close to large bat roosts in southern Ghana. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and χ^2^ tests. # Results The results show that a little over half of the respondents had changed the way they interact with bats as a result of the 2013 EVD outbreak. The reasons given by those who had not changed the way they interact with bats are that: EVD is not present in Ghana, bat meat when cooked properly pose no danger, and the belief that bats do not harbour viruses. # Conclusions We conclude that public health education should be intensified to address the misconceptions that people still have about EVD.