The One Health approach to identify knowledge, attitudes and practices that affect community involvement in the control of Rift Valley fever outbreaks

Abstract

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a viral mosquito-borne disease with the potential for global expansion, causes hemorrhagic fever, and has a high case fatality rate in young animals and in humans.Using a cross-sectional community-based study design, we investigated the knowledge, attitudes and practices of people living in small village in Sudan with respect to RVF outbreaks. A special One Health questionnaire was developed to compile data from 235 heads of household concerning their knowledge, attitudes, and practices with regard to controlling RVF. Although the 2007 RVF outbreak in Sudan had negatively affected the participants’ food availability and livestock income, the participants did not fully understand how to identify RVF symptoms and risk factors for both humans and livestock. For example, the participants mistakenly believed that avoiding livestock that had suffered spontaneous abortions was the least important risk factor for RVF. Although the majority noticed an increase in mosquito population during the 2007 RVF outbreak, few used impregnated bed nets as preventive measures. The community was reluctant to notify the authorities about RVF suspicion in livestock, a sentinel for human RVF infection. Almost all the respondents stressed that they would not receive any compensation for their dead livestock if they notified the authorities. In addition, the participants believed that controlling RVF outbreaks was mainly the responsibility of human health authorities rather than veterinary authorities. The majority of the participants were aware that RVF could spread from one region to another within the country. Participants received most their information about RVF from social networks and the mass media, rather than the health system or veterinarians. Because the perceived role of the community in controlling RVF was fragmented, the probability of RVF spread increased.

Community knowledge, attitude and practices on mosquitoes and mosquito-borne viral diseases in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

“…Agriculture and construction of roads and houses were also reported among the activities leading to mosquito abundance in Kinshasa. These observations were in consistency with ndings reported from Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and France and the French Antilles [1,[42][43][44].…”

“…The appropriate knowledge of MBVD can empower individual to make some effort to prevent or control MBVD in their properties instead of waiting for government intervention. The poor knowledge on MBVD has also been reported for RVF in Kenya, Tanzania, and Sudan [1,42,43]. The lack of knowledge is driving MBVD into new areas and leads to loss of life and economic losses [1,43].…”

High risk for human exposure to Rift Valley fever virus in communities living along livestock movement routes: A cross-sectional survey in Kenya

“…ochraceus) as well as the secondary vectors (i.e., Culex spp) known to transmit RVFV during floods [11,12,48]. Another factor is the human behavior such as handling of sick animals, sheltering of animals, slaughtering practices, and birthing, that could differ across the counties and could influence the risk of infection [49,50].…”

“…Similarly, the occupation of herding and pastoralism is dominated by males, which involves high risk animal-related activities like consuming or handling sick animal products, sheltering sick animals at home and away, birthing, slaughtering, milking, or skinning of dead or sick animals [23]. On the contrary, due to lack of knowledge, women get infected as they take care of sick animals at home hence posing a significant risk of infection to them especially for rural women [50]. RVFV prevalence was lower among the younger age groups [1,29].…”

“…The risk of transmission through exposure to infected animals and animal products could be low in Isiolo County, because the IgG seroprevalence among livestock in the same area during the 2006/2007 outbreak was much lower in Isiolo (9.5%) compared to Garissa (20.9%) county [52]. We however cannot rule out that differences in human behavior such as use of personal protective equipment during birthing, slaughtering, handling of sick animals, among others, that could expose the population in Isiolo county to a higher risk of infection [49,50]. Interestingly, reports from the last outbreaks did not document any human deaths in Isiolo County [4].…”