Measles surveillance in Qatar, 2008: physicians’ knowledge and practices and support received

Abstract

Qatar is in the elimination phase of measles control which requires every suspected measles case to be notified and investigated immediately This cross-sectional study aimed to assess physicians' self-reported knowledge and practices concerning measles surveillance and the support they received. Of 290 physicians participating in the study, only 22.4% met the criterion for best practice in measles surveillance (i.e. knowing and applying the case definition and immediately ordering the correct blood test and immediately reporting suspected cases). Only 14.1% reported getting training and feedback on surveillance. Physicians supervised on their surveillance activities had significantly better surveillance practices than non-supervised physicians, whereas physicians who received training and feedback on their surveillance activities did not perform any better than those who did not. We recommend training activities for physicians and health care workers involved in the measles control as well a system of feedback to health care workers. 1Department of Family and Community Medicine, Primary Health Care Corporation, Doha, Qatar (Correspondence to Z.A. Nazzal: nazzalzaher@ yahoo.com Les médecins bénéficiant d'une supervision en la matière avaient des pratiques nettement supérieures à celles des autres, alors que les médecins ayant participé à une formation et recevant un retour d'information dans ce domaine n'avaient pas de meilleurs résultats. Nous recommandons la mise en oeuvre d'activités de formation pour les médecins et les agents de soins de santé impliqués dans la lutte antirougeoleuse ainsi qu'un système de rétro-information pour les agents de soins de santé.

Childhood communicable disease surveillance: Perception and performance of paediatric residents, Sudan 2019-2020

“…In this study, 60.5% and 42% of residents who attended awareness session about surveillance programs knew the correct case definition included in the AFP and measles and rubella surveillance programs, respectively. However, there was no statistically significant association between the correct knowledge and attending awareness sessions about surveillance programs, a finding that was also reported in the studies from Saudi Arabia and Qatar 10,11 . This might indicate that the training courses need be reevaluated based on the best evidence, and effective training courses should be adopted based on WHO recommendations.…”

“…This is worrisome; as measles is highly contagious. Poor knowledge and awareness among paediatric residents as well as lack of notification will negatively affect the performance of the surveillance system, and hinder the progress of measles control and elimination A similar level of under-reporting in measles surveillance system was also noted in the study from Qatar, which showed that only 22.4% of the surveyed physicians were following best practice in measles surveillance 10 .…”

“…Similarly the report from Qatar found the lowest proportion of best evidence practice (i.e. knowing and applying the case definition) in surveillance was among residents and physicians with five or fewer years of work experience 10 .…”

“…However, they are comparable with the results of another study from Nigeria where half of the respondents (51.8%) among resident doctors were found to have good knowledge of disease surveillance and notification 9 . Even better figures were reported in a study from Qatar that showed 90.7% of the participating physicians identified the measles case definition correctly 10 . Along the same lines, a study in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for assessing the knowledge of health care workers about surveillance for childhood vaccine-preventable diseases which included polio and measles revealed that only about one-quarter of health care providers had satisfactory knowledge score 11 .…”

Awareness and reporting of notifiable diseases among private laboratory scientists in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria

“…[12][13][14] Feedback had been reported as a major component of a surveillance system. 15 Studies showed that 33% and 40% of health-care workers at primary health care in Nigeria and Germany respectively received feedback on their surveillance data. 11,16 In our study these observations reflect a lack of emphasis by public health departments and health authorities on surveillance support activities.…”