Original Research

Healthcare professionals’ awareness, knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and beliefs about Ebola at Gondar University Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Tamrat B. Abebe, Akshaya S. Bhagavathula, Yonas G. Tefera, Akram Ahmad, Muhammad U. Khan, Sewunet A. Belachew, Brandon Brown, Tadesse M. Abegaz
Journal of Public Health in Africa | Vol 7, No 2 | a1002 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4081/jphia.2016.570 | © 2024 Tamrat B. Abebe, Akshaya S. Bhagavathula, Yonas G. Tefera, Akram Ahmad, Muhammad U. Khan, Sewunet A. Belachew, Brandon Brown, Tadesse M. Abegaz | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 25 November 2024 | Published: 31 December 2016

About the author(s)

Tamrat B. Abebe, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Gondar-College of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Gondar, Ethiopia
Akshaya S. Bhagavathula, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Gondar-College of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Gondar, Ethiopia
Yonas G. Tefera, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Gondar-College of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Gondar, Ethiopia
Akram Ahmad, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Muhammad U. Khan, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Sewunet A. Belachew, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Gondar-College of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Gondar, Ethiopia
Brandon Brown, Center for Healthy Communities, Division of Clinical Sciences, UCR School of Medicine, Riverside, United States
Tadesse M. Abegaz, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Gondar-College of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Gondar, Ethiopia

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Abstract

A poor understanding of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) among Health Care Professionals (HCPs) may put our lives at risk. We aimed to assess the awareness, knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, beliefs of HCPs towards Ebola at Gondar University Hospital (GUH) in Northwest Ethiopia. We conducted a hospital based, cross-sectional survey among 245 randomly selected HCPs working at GUH from August-October, 2015. A validated, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. We calculated descriptive statistics with P0.05 being statistically significant. Of the 245 participants, 211 (86.1%) completed the study. The majority had heard about EVD and used news media (62%) as a source of information. Still, many were afraid of getting EVD (56.4%; P=0.001). A significant number of HCPs thought EVD can cause paralysis like polio (45%) and can be treated with antibiotics (28.4%). In addition, 46.4% of the HCPs felt anger or fear towards Ebola infected patients (P=0.006). We identified poor knowledge and negative incorrect beliefs among doctors and allied health professionals. There is a need for intensive training for all HCPs reduce EVD risk.

Keywords

attitudes, Ebola virus disease; health care professionals; knowledge; Ethiopia

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