Hospital or Health facility acquired infections referred to as Nosocomial Infections are health care-associated infections that remain an important Provider/patient safety issue and represent a significant adverse outcome of the health care system. The topic of infection prevention is very important in reducing health costs and the impact of infections among patients in rural health centres. The main objective of this study is to assess the Knowledge Attitude and Practices on prevention of Infection Prevention among health care providers in rural health centres in Chibombo District in Central Province of Zambia. A descriptive cross sectional study of the knowledge, attitude and practice of infection prevention among health care providers in 31rural health centres of Chibombo district was carried out. Sample size proportional was calculated, and inclusion was done by using simple random sampling in order to make the calculated overall sample size. Data was obtained through structured, self-administered questionnaire. Summated scores were used to grade respondents' knowledge attitudes and practices of Infection Prevention among health care providers in rural health centres in Chibombo District. Data analysis was done using the Statistical package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21, presented using descriptive statistics of frequencies, percentages, pie chart. Inferential statistics of Chi-square was used to test for associations between various factors and the knowledge, attitude and practices of Infection Prevention among health care providers in rural health facilities of Chibombo. A total of 94 (62.7%) out of 150 respondents had high level of knowledge while, considerable proportion of 55 (36.7%) out of 150 respondents had poor knowledge. Almost one-third (26%) had poor Practice meanwhile all the respondents150 (100%) had a positive attitude toward infection prevention. There was statistical significant association between profession of health workers, and practice of health care providers towards Infection prevention (P<0.05). On other hand, there was no significant association between knowledge, practice of Infection Prevention among health care providers in rural health facilities of Chibombo, and age, sex, marital status, religion or duration of work for the respondents (P>0.05). There is need for the government to consistently provide monthly grant allocation to support in-service training, enforce IP guidelines, purchase of sterilizers, PPEs, increase supervision of IP activities to all rural health facilities in Chibombo district through their committees.

Malaria is a life threatening infectious disease that constitutes a major global public health and economic concern. Consequently, the WHO has recommended a T3 initiative (Test, Treat & Track) to help curb the scourge globally. This study aimed to ascertain the efficacy of malaria diagnosis in malaria case management and perception of community pharmacists on the WHO recommended standard of parasitological diagnosis before commencement of treatment within Abuja metropolis. A descriptive cross sectional study was performed amongst 207 community pharmacists within Abuja Metropolis. Data was obtained through structured, self-administered questionnaire. The association of respondent characteristics with the awareness, practice, and perception of malaria testing, and treatment was evaluated by Chi-square analysis for proportion. Where the number of categories was less than five, Fisher exact test was used. Seventy-two percent (72.9%) were aware of the WHO recommended T3 initiative on malaria case management. However, less than 10% of respondents had training in all the three components. On practice, 28.5% of community pharmacists carry out malaria diagnosis with a confirmatory test before instituting treatment. Ninety-two percent (92.3%) treat malaria based on clinical signs and symptoms only. Despite the high rate of clinical diagnosis, a majority (84.1%) agreed that the confirmatory test is more effective and efficient in malaria case management than clinical diagnosis. Most respondents (60.4%) reported that the confirmatory test most readily available was mRDT. Eighty-seven percent (87%) have good perception on parasitological confirmatory testing for malaria diagnosis and most respondents have confidence in results from the malaria confirmatory test while 68.6% trust their malaria confirmatory test skill. A little above half (52.7%) of the respondents treat for malaria regardless of negative confirmatory test results when the patient insists on treatment. A higher proportion (39%) of male community Pharmacists compared to females carry out malaria diagnosis with a confirmatory test before treatment. There was significant association of perception on the efficacy of a parasitological confirmatory test for malaria with age and work experience and there was significant association of work experience with the practice of confirmatory testing before treatment (P<0.05). Inferentially, this is call to action for government, professional bodies in the health sector and all committed to fight the scourge of malaria for more awareness to the general public on importance of the WHO T3 and capacity strengthening for the frontline health workers -community pharmacy attending to community needs on malaria case management.

Covid-19 outbreak has been a great public health challenge to the world where government in various countries has made drastic effort to mitigate the outbreak of the pandemic "COVID-19" by imposing lockdown, movement control. Adherence to control measure is affected by their knowledge, attitude and willingness towards covid-19 preventive measure. In this study, to assess the knowledge, attitude and willingness towards covid-19 preventive measure among the healthcare workers in a tertiary health institution in North Eastern part of Nigeria. Method: A descriptive cross sectional survey was performed in a tertiary health institution in North Eastern part of Nigeria between May and July 2020. Data were obtained through the use of structured questionnaire, which was subjected to a pilot study for validation of the main study. Summated scores were used to grade respondents who are healthcare workers on their knowledge, attitude and willingness towards covid-19 preventive measures. Data were presented in using descriptive analysis and inferential status was used to test for the association between various characteristics and their knowledge, attitude and willingness of healthcare workers toward covid-19 preventive measures. Result: The result showed that (37.5%) of the 127 respondent has good knowledge on covid-19 and (93.6%) has positive attitude and willingness toward covid-19 preventive measure. It was further revealed that there was a statistical significant association between occupation out of all the demographic variables and the knowledge, attitude and willingness toward covid-19 preventive measure. Conclusion: Most of the healthcare workers had good knowledge, attitude and willingness toward covid-19 preventive measure. Additional educative interventive strategies are to be adopted by the hospital/health ministry for health workers to improve their knowledge on communicable disease.

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