Health workers knowledge, attitude and practice during lassa fever outbreak, Anambra State, Nigeria, 2016

Introduction : Lassa fever (LF) is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever caused by Lassa fever virus (LVF), Asymptomatic in 80% of cases; Lassa fever is associated with bleeding and multiple organ failure. It is endemic in West Africa and Nigeria has been having severe outbreaks since 2014.On 18th August 2016, a patient was referred to a teaching hospital in the State with bleeding from orifices, hematuria, and bleeding from puncture sites. Lassa fever was confirmed post mortem. This study was conducted to assess knowledge, attitude and practice among health workers. Methods : we conducted a cross-sectional study among health workers in Anambra State. we assessed KAP using self-administered questionnaire and multistage sampling technique was employed. KAP score was computed using 12, 10 and 9 item questions respectively. Each item was assigned: 1 for correct Knowledge and 0 for incorrect knowledge. KAP was classified as good if u003e 75%, fair if u003e 50%, poor if Results : a total of 128 health workers were interviewed of which 109 (86.51%) were females, 2% clinicians, 34% nurses, 50% community health extension workers, others 14%. Only 10% were able to give the case definition of LF, 21% were able to mention drug of choice,10% knew the reservoir for the virus and only 4.7% could properly describe hand washing.15.6 % had good,32.8% fair and 51.6% poor knowledge. 75.8% had good, 20.3% fair and 4.7% poor attitude. 30.5% had good, 57% fair and 12.5% poor practice. Having attended any training / sensitization and duration of employment were associated with having good knowledge (x 2 = 10.6, P = 0.005 and X 2 = 32.7, P = 2 = 14.55, P = Conclusion : overall Knowledge and practice was very poor but attitude was good. We sensitized health workers in the State.