Zika Outbreak Emergency Preparedness and Response of Malaysian Private Healthcare Professionals: Are They Ready?

Rajiah, Kingston; Maharajan, Mari Kannan; Yin, Pua Yin; Yee, Yap Wei; Lin, Wong Wan; Kean, Chew Hui

doi:10.3390/microorganisms7030087

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This finding was supported by a Rajiah et al 29 reporting the lack of preparedness and perceived response to Zika outbreak among community pharmacists in Malaysia. We also agree to Rajiah et al 29 that all health care professionals in Malaysia should attend training or seminar given by Ministry of Health Malaysia as a continuing education as part of their professional career paths.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Knowledge, Awareness, and Perception of Community Pharmacists to Zika Virus Infection in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Lim

Tham

2020

Health�Serv�Insights

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Background: Zika fever is a mosquito-borne disease with global health concern. It has been underreported or misdiagnosed due to its unspecific clinical manifestations, including mild-influenza like and subclinical symptoms. However, its associated serious complications which include fetal microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome remained a challenge to the public health sectors. This research aimed to evaluate the knowledge, awareness, and perception toward Zika virus infection among community pharmacists in the Klang Valley of Malaysia and to determine the association between the knowledge of Zika virus infectious disease and years of community practice experience among community pharmacists in this region. Methods: This survey research was conducted from August to December 2018 through a pre-tested, self-administration, and cross-sectional random convenient sampling at various districts in the Klang Valley. A total of 275 registered community pharmacists were involved in this study by completing a pilot-tested questionnaire. Descriptive analysis, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to analyze the data. Results: The knowledge toward Zika virus infection of respondents was classified into “poor” (5.1%), “basic” (70.9%), and “broad” (24.0%). Most of the participants (n = 195, 70.9%) presented with basic knowledge toward Zika virus infection. A total of 268 (97.5%) participants presented with high awareness toward Zika virus infection. The mean score of respondents’ knowledge and awareness was 15.88 ± 3.61 (maximum score = 28) and 13.96 ± 1.60 (maximum score = 16), respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the years of practice of community pharmacists and the level of knowledge toward Zika virus infection. Conclusions: In conclusion, our respondents demonstrated a basic level of knowledge and high awareness toward Zika virus infection. Also, we highlighted some possible pitfalls in the knowledge of Zika virus infection, including the virus transmission, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and complications of the disease.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Knowledge, Awareness, and Perception of Community Pharmacists to Zika Virus Infection in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Lim

Tham

2020

Health�Serv�Insights

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“…The tropical and sub-tropical climate of Southeast Asia and its heterogeneity in socio-economic factors make it vulnerable to mosquito-borne infectious diseases (20,21). Considering these facts, many types of interventions have been implemented to deal with people with suspected and actual Zika virus infection (22). It is essential to measure the effectiveness of such interventions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Determinants Predicting the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Women Toward Zika Virus Infection

Maharajan

Rajiah

Belotindos

et al. 2020

Front. Public Health

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Objective: To investigate the factors predicting knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) toward Zika virus infection among women population in Cebu City, Philippines. Study Design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from March 2018 to May 2018. Ethical practices were followed. A total of 702 women was approached and finally 516 completed the survey. Methods: Descriptive analysis was undertaken for the participants' characteristics. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied to declare the nature of data distribution. To determine the role of socio-demographic characteristics on KAP, differences in socio-demographic status were compared with the KAP scores using the one-way analysis of variance or Kruskal-Wallis test with p < 0.05 as significant. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the predictors of each KAP domain (good and poor). Results: There was a significant positive correlation between level of education and KAP scores. Also, there was a significant positive correlation between employment and KAP scores. Knowledge score was a significant predictor of practice score (b = 1.261, p = 0.024), and attitude score was also a significant predictor of practice score (b = 0.183, p = 0.039). However, knowledge score was not a significant predictor of attitude score (b = 0.316, p = 0.247). Conclusions: The present findings provided an overall view of KAP on Zika virus infection among females in Philippines and the socio-demographic factors that affected their KAP. Women with postgraduate education and being in higher profession were the predictors influencing the KAP scores of this female population. Women with postgraduate education was the strongest predictor.

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“…A self-administered structural questionnaire was developed, and adapted from previously published studies as guidance [ 22 , 23 ]. Four independent healthcare professionals evaluated the initial draft of the questionnaire for face validity, in which changes were made according to their feedback and comments.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healthcare workers’ knowledge, preparedness, counselling practices, and perceived barriers to confront COVID-19: A cross-sectional study from a war-torn country, Yemen

et al. 2020

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Background The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) represents a difficult challenge and could have devastating consequences for the healthcare system and healthcare workers in war-torn countries with poor healthcare facilities such as Yemen. Our study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, preparedness, counselling practices of healthcare workers regarding COVID-19, and the perceived barriers to adequately prevent and control COVID-19 in Yemen. Methods Healthcare workers (HCWs) from major healthcare facilities participated in this cross-sectional study. A self-administered questionnaire comprising of five main domains (demographics, knowledge, self-preparedness, counselling practice, perceived barriers) was distributed among HCWs after obtaining informed consent. A convenient sampling technique was used. Descriptive and inferential analyses were applied using SPSS software. Results A total of 1000 participants were initially targeted to participate in the study with 514 (51.4%) responding, of which 55.3% were female. Physicians and nurses constituted the largest proportion of participants, with 39.5% and 33.3%, respectively. The median scores for knowledge, self-preparedness, and counselling practice were 8 (out of 9), 9 (out of 15), and 25 (out of 30), respectively. The physician group showed a statistically significant association with better knowledge compared to the nurse group only, P<0.001. Males had higher preparedness scores than females, p<0.001. Also, the intensive care unit (ICU) and emergency departments presented a statistically significant difference by which the participants from these departments were more prepared compared to the others (e.g. outpatients, paediatrics and surgery) with P < 0.0001. The lack of awareness among the general population about COVID-19 preventive measures was perceived as the most common barrier for the adequate prevention and control of COVID-19 in Yemen (89.1%). Conclusion The major highlight of this study is that HCWs have, overall, good knowledge, suboptimal preparedness, and adequate counselling practices prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Yemen, despite the high number of perceived barriers. However, urgent action and interventions are needed to improve the preparedness of HCWs to manage COVID-19. The perceived barriers also need to be fully addressed by the local healthcare authorities and international organisations working in Yemen for adequate prevention and control measures to be in place in managing COVID-19.

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Zika Outbreak Emergency Preparedness and Response of Malaysian Private Healthcare Professionals: Are They Ready?

Cited by 14 publications

References 25 publications

Knowledge, Awareness, and Perception of Community Pharmacists to Zika Virus Infection in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Knowledge, Awareness, and Perception of Community Pharmacists to Zika Virus Infection in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Social Determinants Predicting the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Women Toward Zika Virus Infection

Healthcare workers’ knowledge, preparedness, counselling practices, and perceived barriers to confront COVID-19: A cross-sectional study from a war-torn country, Yemen

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