Kumlert Rawadee, Pawestri Aulia Rahmi, Linsuwanon Piyada, Morand Serge
The Office of Disease Prevention and Control 12, Songkhla Province (ODPC12), Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Songkhla 90000, Thailand.
Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University (FTM, MU), Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
Trop Med Infect Dis. 2020 Apr 5;5(2):55. doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed5020055.
Scrub typhus, a disease caused by , affects more than one billion people globally with an average fatality rate of 6%. Humans are accidentally infected through the bite of trombiculid mite larvae (chiggers). Chiggers feed on hosts' extracellular fluid for survival and development. is maintained throughout the chigger's lifespan and over several generations. Although disease-related knowledge is essential in designing effective control strategies, many personnel in related sectors are unfamiliar with this disease and its vector. To tackle this issue, we developed a distance learning tool using educational videos on scrub typhus- and vector-related topics. The learning method is facilitated online, and students and tutors are not required to be physically present at the same place and time, thus allowing flexibility and accessibility. Knowledge improvement of 34 participants from related sectors was evaluated by pre- and post-test questionnaires. Although 54% of participants had prior knowledge of scrub typhus, 76.5% still lack basic knowledge of vector identification. After the distance learning, the average score increased significantly from the baseline ( < 0.05). Most participants showed interest in the topic and learning method. These results suggest that the distance learning method was promising in distributing health-related information and might be applied to other diseases and communities.
恙虫病是由[病原体名称缺失]引起的一种疾病，全球有超过10亿人受其影响，平均死亡率为6%。人类通过恙螨幼虫（恙螨）的叮咬意外感染。恙螨以宿主的细胞外液为食以维持生存和发育。[病原体名称缺失]在恙螨的整个生命周期及几代中得以存续。尽管与疾病相关的知识对于设计有效的控制策略至关重要，但相关部门的许多人员并不熟悉这种疾病及其传播媒介。为解决这一问题，我们利用关于恙虫病及传播媒介相关主题的教育视频开发了一种远程学习工具。这种学习方法通过在线方式进行，学生和导师无需在同一时间和地点实际在场，从而具有灵活性和可及性。通过前后测问卷对34名来自相关部门的参与者的知识提升情况进行了评估。尽管54%的参与者之前了解恙虫病，但仍有76.5%的人缺乏病媒识别的基本知识。远程学习后，平均得分较基线显著提高（<0.05）。大多数参与者对该主题和学习方法表现出兴趣。这些结果表明，远程学习方法在传播健康相关信息方面很有前景，可能适用于其他疾病和社区。
