ABSTRACT
Introduction: Viral Hemorrhagic fevers are group of infectious illness that can cause severe life threatening diseases. During an outbreak, resource limitations along with the inadequate knowledge and skills for minimizing the risks of transmission to the health workers can lead to de-prioritization of patient care.
Objective: To assess the facility readiness, knowledge, attitude and practice of health care workers towards Viral Hemorrhagic Fever outbreak in Edo State.
Methodology: The study was carried out amongst 385 respondents in 12 secondary health care facilities, , who were selected using random sampling technique and multi-stage sampling technique respectively with a completion rate of 91.4% (352). Pre-tested self-administered questionnaires were used for data collection. Data was collected, assessed for completeness and analyzed with IBM SPSS version 25.0 software. Knowledge was scored in percentages and graded as good and poor. The association between socio-demographic variables and knowledge, attitude and practice towards Viral Hemorrhagic Fever outbreak amongst respondents was analyzed using chi squared test and fisher’s exact test where applicable. The level of significant was set at p < 0.05.
Result: The proportions of health care workers with good knowledge, positive attitude and good practices towards viral Hemorrhagic fevers were 58.2%, 54.3% and 13.1% respectively. The level of years of experience was significantly associated with knowledge and attitude of the Health Care Workers (p<0.05) while there was no significant variables associated with the level of practice. The level of preparedness of the secondary health care facilities was poor as there were no health facilities with a readiness plan. There were no details of personal protective equipment and precautions to be taken in the event of a possible infectious disease or when victims need decontamination in 75% of the secondary health care facilities interviewed. Only 33.3% of the hospitals have plans of action to transport and refer patients as most of the ambulances for these hospitals were reportedly broken down or under repair.
Conclusion: The study revealed that the level of knowledge and attitude of the health care workers towards Viral Hemorrhagic Fever was good while their practices was poor. The study also showed that the secondary health care facilities in the State are not well prepared for viral hemorrhagic fever outbreak.
Key words: Viral Hemorrhagic Fever, Outbreak, Health Care Workers, Hospitals, Facilities, Infection, Prevention and Control.
