Awareness Regarding Ebola Virus Disease among Health Care Professionals in Tertiary Hospitals

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) or Ebola Hemorrhagic fever is a severe hemorrhagic febrile disease which can be fatal. Person-person or animal-person transmission of EVD occurs through direct contact of blood, organs, other body fluids or mucous membrane of infected person. It is transmitted from person-person, animal-person, and contact with the dead body of an infected person or consumption of raw meat or contaminated fruits and by improper handling of health care wastes. EVD is highly infectious and affected many lives across the borders mainly because of its ease of transmission.

This cross sectional study was conducted in Kasturba Medical College (Manipal University), Mangalore, among the health care providers (doctors, lab personnel, nurses). The sample size calculated was 150. Data were collected using a pre tested semi structured questionnaire assessing the knowledge regarding Ebola.

The study consisted of 91(60.7%) Doctors, 49(32.6%) Nurses, 10(6.7%) Lab personnel. 36.3% of the Doctors knew correctly that the dead body of an Ebola victim should be buried in a sealed bag. Equal number of Doctors (42.9%) and Nurses (42.9%) knew that confirmation of Ebola infection can be done by any of the convenient techniques like RT-PCR. Seventy percent of Lab personnel believe that particle respirator is required while working on Ebola cases but not required while doing the same on HIV or HBV individuals.

Public health messages should focus on reducing the risk of animal-to-human, as well as human-to-human transmission. Burial of the dead, should be strictly enforced.