Awareness on Avian Influenza among the Workers of Selected Poultry Farms in Dhaka City
Sheikh Shahidul Islam1, Md. Saiful Islam2, SM Humayun Kabir3, Masuda Begum4 , Mesbah *Uddin Ahmed5, Muhammad Moinuddin6
1GSO-1, HQ ARTDOC, Mymensingh Cantonment, Bangladesh
2Department of Laboratory Medicine, BSMMU, Bangladesh
3Assistant Director Medical Services, Shaheed Salahuddin Cantonment, Bangladesh
4Department of Anatomy & Physiology, Marks Medical College, Bangladesh
5Department of Microbiology, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Bangladesh
6Armed Forces Medical Institute, Dhaka Cantonment, Bangladesh
Submission: December 19, 2016; Published: January 06, 2017
*Corresponding author: Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, Department of Microbiology, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Bangladesh.
How to cite this article: Sheikh S I, Md. Saiful I, SM Humayun K, Masuda B, Mesbah U A. et al. Awareness on Avian Influenza among the Workers of Selected Poultry Farms in Dhaka City. JOJ Pub Health. 2017; 1(1): 555551. DOI:10.19080/JOJPH.2017.01.555551
Abstract
Bangladesh is a poor, densely populated country of South East Asia and vast proportion of the people here live under poverty level where poultry is emerging as a huge industry. There are about 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks in Bangladesh, millions of households rely on poultry production for income generation and nutrition. So any mishaps in the poultry industry, such as outbreak of bird flu, would have enormous economic as well as health consequences in Bangladesh. This was a cross-sectional study carried out among the poultry workers of selected poultry farms in Dhaka city. The study was conducted for a period of six months starting from January 2008 to June 2008. A total of 150 poultry workers aged 9 years and above irrespective of sexes were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire by face to face interview. The main objective of the study was to assess the level of awareness on avian influenza among the poultry workers of selected poultry farms in Dhaka city. Data analysis revealed that 98% of the respondents ever heard avian influenza and their main source of information was television (98%). About ninety percent respondents mentioned that it is caused by virus (89.3%). Among the respondents about three fourth (68%) mentioned that it is transmitted by direct contact and 92% had the knowledge on sign and symptoms in poultry. Eighty percent of the respondents had the knowledge on transmission from poultry to human, 63% had the knowledge on transmission from human to human whereas 46.7% had the knowledge on sign & symptoms of avian influenza in human. More than eighty percent (88.7%) of the respondents believed that it can be prevented by vaccine, 56.7% believed that using personal protective equipment’s can prevent it. Though the study sample was small which might not be representative of population however, data would be useful in development of planning and program strategies.
Keywords: Awareness; Avian Influenza; Poultry Workers
Introduction
The ongoing outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI/H5N1) in a number of South-East Asian countries since late 2003 have been particularly devastating to the poultry industry, in the region and have raised serious global public health concerns. Available evidence points to an’ increased risk of transmission to humans when outbreaks of HPAI/H5NI Avian influenza, are widespread in poultry. The potential of HPAI/H5N1 vims to evolve resulting into a human influenza pandemic is of grave concern to both the national and, global community [1]. The World Health Organization (WHO) and influenza experts expressed their concern that the resurgence and spread of HPAI/H5N1 in wide geographical areas has the potential to ignite the next human pandemic. WHO estimates that if a human influenza pandemic occur, as many as two to seven million people could die. As of April, 2008. WHO has recorded 382 human cases of laboratory confirmed HPAI/H5N1 Avian Influenza. Two Forty One (241) of them had already died indicating a high case fatality rate of approximately 63.08%. Bangladesh has. 125,000 small and large poultry farms producing 250 million broilers and 6 billion eggs annually, with an annual turnover of $750 million [2]. About four million Bangladeshis are directly or indirectly associated with poultry farming. As four million Bangladeshis are directly or indirectly associated with poultry farming, weshould put our best effort to protect the industry from bird flu.Our country is in a susceptible situation as it lies on the majorroute of migratory birds. According to United Nations, AvianInfluenza and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and ResponsePlan have been prepared. In Bangladesh, 244 species ofmigratory birds visit Bangladesh in the winter season every year(October-March) which approximately 21 species may carry theH5NI or HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian influenza) vims. Thedense population and close living quarters increase potentialsfor vims transmissions. The awareness on avian influenza amongthe workers of poultry farms will help us to face the future threatand will reduce the loss of life of both birds and human [3]. Thisstudy will reveal the state of knowledge and awareness aboutavian influenza during the avian influenza epizootic amongthe most vulnerable population involved in poultry industry.The data may be useful for designing future strategy for riskcommunication and behavior modification.
Materials and Methods
Poultry workers in poultry farms irrespective of sexes in aselected area of Dhaka City were study population. The studywas conducted at a selected area of Dhaka city corporation i.e.Uttar Khan Area. The study area was selected purposively for theresearch. It was a descriptive cross sectional study. The study wasconducted in a period of 6 months started from January to June2008. Purposive sampling was used. A sample size consistingof 150 respondents were interviewed and was decided uponconvenience. Two respondents were included from eachpoultry farm of the area. For data collection, semi structuredquestionnaire were developed after preliminary observation &review of literature. The questionnaire were pretested, modifiedand finalized. There were also an observational checklist toassess the practices for prevention of avian influenza. Datawere collected by the researcher himself by using the semistructured questionnaire and observational checklist sheet.The researcher went from one poultry farm to another. Filledup the questionnaire and observational checklist throughface to face interview. Before filling the questionnaire, theidentification of the researcher and the purpose was explainedclearly to the respondents. The interview were conducted in acomfortable atmosphere, so that they answered to the questionsconfidently and without any hesitation. After collection ofdata they were checked, verified and edited for consistency.Then the results were tabulated. The percentage and the otherstatistical calculations and analysis were done by SPSS to fulfillthe objectives of the study. Results have been presented in the(Tables 1-5). In this study knowledge refers the understandingabout avian influenza infection among the poultry worker. Thelevel of knowledge on avian influenza was assured by arbitrarilygiven score ‘1’ for yes and ‘0’ for no according to Cornel MedicalIndex (CMI). The respondent’s knowledge on avian influenzawas categorized as: Good knowledge (score >33) (>80%), Fairknowledge (32-21) (50% to <80%) & Poor knowledge (<21) (<50%). The total score was 42.The ability to recognize andaccurately interpret or justify the message available to anyindividual was considered as awareness. The level of awarenesson avian influenza was assured by arbitrarily given score ‘l’ for‘aware’ and ‘o’ for not aware’ according to Comel Medical Index.The following aspects of avian influenza were considered forassessing the level of awareness.
- Whether the respondents knew about avian influenza
- If yes - score-1, If no- score-O
- Total score – 1
Result (Table 1)
Out of 150 respondents, 147(98%) of them ever heard AvianInfluenza & 3(2%) did not. The main sources of information wasTelevision (98%), followed by Colleague (55.8%), Radio (40.8%),Relatives (38.1%), Health worker (15.6%) and 11(7.5%)respondents got the message from News Paper (Table 2).
Out of 150 respondents, 89.3% of the poultry workersreportedly mentioned that it is a communicable disease. Among them 90.7 % believed that it is a preventable disease and 6.0%opined as non- preventable disease. However 5.0% did not knowwhether it is preventable disease or not (Figure 1).
Out of 150 respondents, 82.7% reportedly mentioned that itis caused by vims which is correct answer. Among them 19.3%gave wrong answer whereas 9.3% did not know about the causeof avian influenza (Table 3).
Out of 150 respondents, 80.0% had knowledge on modeof transmission of avian influenza from poultry to human and18.0% respondents answered wrongly whereas 2.0% of therespondents had no knowledge about the mode of transmission.(Figure 2) Out of 150 respondents 63.3% had the knowledge ontransmission of avian influenza from human to human, 34.7%gave wrong answer where as 2% of the respondents did not haveany knowledge on transmission (Table 5).
Considering the prevention of avian influenza in human,88.7% reportedly mentioned that it should be prevented byvaccine and 56.7% believed that it should be prevented throngh use of personal protective equipment’s. However, 5.3% did notknow about the ways of prevention of avian influenza in human.
Discussion
The ‘respondents in this study were the poultry workersengaged in working as an employee of the poultry farm as wellas owner of the farm and the workers were engaged in all typesof works required to grow and develop chickens and also thoseengaged in selling and slaughtering. The respondents were thehigh risk group who may be infected by avian influenza dueto risky environment and risk behavior of the respondents. Apanic due to recent outbreak of avian influenza was prevailedamong workers. In this study, awareness on avian influenza wasassessed by asking the respondents whether a respondents hadever heard about avian influenza. It was evident that 98% of therespondents mentioned that they heard about avian influenza.This result is close to the findings of the study by Nipa FS. Thismight be due to dissemination of information since recentoutbreak of avian influenza in Bangladesh [4]. The source ofinformation found in this study was Television (98%) followedby colleagues (58%) which is partially similar (In case oftelevision) with the findings of the study conducted by GusepeeGD where 85.8% respondents received the message throughtelevision followed by health professionals (26.5%) [5].
This result indicated that during the last outbreak of avian influenza, electronic media like television played a very active role in dissemination of information about avian influenza inBangladesh. In the present study, 82.7% of the respondentsreportedly mentioned that avian influenza is caused by viruswhich is the correct answer. Nipa FS conducted a similar studyat NIPSOM and found that 48.6% knew correctly the causativeagent of avian influenza [4]. The increased knowledge oncausative agent `may be due to recent awareness programstaken by the government, NGO`s and volunteers of different levelto raise the awareness among the people and implementationof the programs by various ways in the country. In the presentstudy, it was evident that 89.3% of the respondents werefound to be aware about the communicability of the diseaseand 90.7% believed that it could be prevented by adoptingpersonal protective measures. This result is little dissimilarwith the findings of Nipa FS4where 95.2% knew about thecommunicability and 70.5% believed that it was preventable.This difference may be due to the difference of educational,social and economic status of the respondents between the twodefined study areas as an obvious reason.
In the present study, respondents reportedly mentionedthat avian influenza can be transmitted by direct contact withinfected bird (68%) eating of half boiled egg (63.3%) eatingof half cooked meat (68%), respiration (62%), handling ofhalf boiled egg (54%), contact with infected poultry (44.7%)whereas the result of the study conducted by Nipa FS showedthat transmission from bird to human caused by direct contact(48.6%), ingestion of uncooked meat & eggs (13.3%), and byinhalation (1%).
The dissimilarity of the result may be due to increasedawareness in last one year of time due to massive awarenessprogram. In the present study, it was revealed that 92% of therespondents were aware about the sign and symptoms of avianinfluenza in birds. The respondents reportedly mentioned thatmarked depression (92%), edema comb (71.3010), waterydiarrhea (59.3%), cessation of egg production (56.7&), reluctantto food (52.7%), egg without shell (51 .3%), conjunctivahemorrhage (19.3%) and 8% did not know about the sign andsymptoms of avian influenza. In a similar study conducted byUNICEF in 2007, showed that marked depression (52.6%), waterydiarrhoea (13.9%), cessation of egg production (4.5%), reluctantto food (17.8%) & about half 86 of them did not know about thesign symptoms of avian influenza in poultry [6]. In the studyconducted Nips FS showed that marked depression (32.4%),edema comb (5.7%), watery diarrhoea (27.6%) & did not know(52.4%). The increased knowledge may be due to increasedawareness of the poultry worker due to different campaign bygovernment, NGO & the voluntary organizations during therecent outbreak of avian influenza. It can, be mentioned herethat many of the farm visited were bird nu affected which mightthe factor behind increased awareness. In the present study, it isevident that 46.7 % of the respondents were aware of the signand symptoms of avian influenza in humans whereas 43.3% didnot know about the sign &symptoms avian influenza in humanthe respondent reportedly mentioned that high fever (50%),running nose (38%), headache (37.3%), cough (36%), difficultyin breathing (35.3%), body ache (19.3%) as sign symptoms ofavian influenza in human.
In a similar study conducted by Nipa FS showed that 48% ofthe respondents were aware of knowledge on sign & symptomsof avian influenza in human and reportedly mentioned thathigh fever (39%), running nose (9.5%), headache (8.6%), cough(8.6%), bodyache/muscle pain (5.7%) as the sign & symptoms ofavian influenza in human where as 54.3% did now know aboutit. The enhancement of knowledge on sign & symptoms of avianinfluenza in human may be due to the positive role played by thegovernment, NGO’s and volunteers to raise awareness among thepoultry. Workers in addition to the various types of campaign bythe electronic and print media.
In the present study 88.7% of respondents reportedlymentioned that it can be prevented by use of personal protectiveequipment, 56.7% mentioned that vaccine can prevent itwhereas 5.3% did not know about the way of prevention ofavian influenza in human. In a similar study conducted byMarinosG et al revealed that 46% of respondents knew aboutthe prevention by vaccine, 95.7% believed it can be prevented bynot touching the infected poultry [7], whereas in study showedthat use of personal protective equipment 48.6%, vaccine 46%&4.8% did not know about the prevention. The knowledge onprevention has increased & may be due to increased interest ofthe respondents to tackle the impending threat of outbreak inthe study area during the study period [4].
Conclusion
The study revealed that majority of the respondents everheard avian influenza. More than 80% mentioned that it iscaused by virus. The main source of information was television.More than half of the respondents (68%) reportedly mentionedthat it is transmitted by direct contact. About 63.3% had theknowledge on transmission of avian influenza from human tohuman. About 46.7% had the knowledge on sign & symptoms ofavian influenza.
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