Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana.
Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana.
PLoS One. 2018 Aug 23;13(8):e0201526. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201526. eCollection 2018.
In the past four decades, there has been an increase in the occurrence of zoonotic diseases. Some outbreaks have been devastating because of the inability of individuals and health workers to identify the diseases early. Generally, most zoonotic diseases are heralded by a fever. While fevers are common, they are often the symptoms of different diseases. This paper explores how a population at potential risk of zoonotic diseases identify fevers, and what treatments they seek when they develop fevers. The data are from focus group discussions and a survey of three communities in the Brong Ahafo, Volta and Greater Accra regions in Ghana. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics while the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that the perceived causes of fever differ from the traditional biomedical view. While orthodox treatment was the preferred choice for most participants, rural dwellers utilised traditional medicine more than their urban counterparts. Though there is no record of bat-borne zoonotic disease in Ghana, our findings could be used as a proxy to indicate how populations at risk of exposure might respond in the event of a spillover event from a zoonosis. We recommend that educational campaigns on zoonotic diseases should target rural dwellers, especially farmers, who may be most at risk of zoonoses.
在过去的四十年中，人畜共患疾病的发生有所增加。由于个人和卫生工作者无法及早识别这些疾病，一些疫情造成了毁灭性的影响。通常，大多数人畜共患疾病都会以发热为前兆。虽然发热很常见，但它们往往是不同疾病的症状。本文探讨了处于人畜共患疾病风险中的人群如何识别发热，以及当他们发热时会寻求何种治疗。数据来自加纳布隆阿哈福、沃尔特和大阿克拉地区的三个社区的焦点小组讨论和调查。定量数据采用描述性统计进行分析，定性数据采用主题分析进行分析。研究结果表明，发热的感知原因与传统的生物医学观点不同。虽然正统治疗是大多数参与者的首选，但农村居民比城市居民更倾向于使用传统医学。尽管加纳没有蝙蝠传播的人畜共患疾病的记录，但我们的研究结果可以作为一个指标，表明在人畜共患病溢出事件中，处于风险中的人群可能会做出何种反应。我们建议针对农村居民，特别是农民，开展有关人畜共患疾病的教育活动，因为他们可能是最容易感染人畜共患疾病的人群。
