School of Biomedical and Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
BMC Public Health. 2013 Apr 24;13:382. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-382.
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), commonly known as kala-azar is a systemic disease caused by parasitic protozoan species of genus Leishmania and transmitted by species of Phlebotomus (sand flies). It is a poverty-related disease and associated with malnutrition, displacement, poor housing, weakness of the immune system and lack of resources. For the success of prevention and control programs of any disease, the most important prerequisite is community participation. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of residents towards VL in Addis Zemen town, south Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia.
Community based cross-sectional study was conducted among residents in Addis Zemen town from February to March 2012. A total of 346 households were selected by using simple random sampling techniques from three kebeles in the town. Data was collected using structured Questionnaire. For knowledge, attitude and practice variables each right response was given a score of 1 while a wrong or unsure response was scored 0. Data were double entered and analyzed using SPSS-15 statistical software. The frequency distribution of both dependent and independent variables were worked out.
From a total of 346 study participants (136 males and 210 females), 87.6% heard of the disease kala-azar. From participants who heard about kala-azar 93.5% males and 86.7% females had awareness about the disease. The majority (95.7%) of participants had favourable attitude towards the treatment of kala-azar whereas 14.8% didn't use anything to prevent it. More than half of the respondents (68.6%) did practice proper methods for the prevention and control of kala-azar in the study area.
In general our findings showed that the residents had good awareness and favourable attitude about the disease, but their overall practice about prevention and control of the disease was low. Therefore, our investigation call for continued and strengthened behavioral change communication and social mobilization related activities.
内脏利什曼病（VL），俗称黑热病，是一种由利什曼原虫属的寄生虫引起的系统性疾病，通过白蛉（沙蝇）传播。它是一种与贫困相关的疾病，与营养不良、流离失所、住房简陋、免疫系统薄弱和资源匮乏有关。任何疾病的预防和控制计划要取得成功，最重要的前提是社区参与。因此，本研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚西北南贡德尔地区阿迪扎门镇居民对利什曼病的知识、态度和实践。
2012 年 2 月至 3 月，在阿迪扎门镇进行了一项基于社区的横断面研究。从该镇的三个区采用简单随机抽样技术选择了 346 户家庭。使用结构化问卷收集数据。对于知识、态度和实践变量，每个正确的回答得 1 分，错误或不确定的回答得 0 分。使用 SPSS-15 统计软件对数据进行双录入和分析。计算了依赖和独立变量的频率分布。
在总共 346 名研究参与者（136 名男性和 210 名女性）中，87.6%听说过疾病黑热病。在听说过黑热病的参与者中，93.5%的男性和 86.7%的女性对该病有认识。大多数（95.7%）参与者对黑热病的治疗持有利态度，而 14.8%的人没有采取任何措施来预防它。在研究区域，超过一半的受访者（68.6%）确实采取了适当的方法来预防和控制黑热病。
总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，居民对该病有较好的认识和有利的态度，但他们对该病的预防和控制的总体实践水平较低。因此，我们的调查呼吁继续加强行为改变沟通和社会动员相关活动。
