Download This PaperAvian Influenza Practices Among Rural Community in Egypt
13 Pages Posted: 18 May 2020
Date Written: April 22, 2020
Abstract
Background: Avian influenza (AI) is currently a threat to global health. Prevention and control largely depend on population awareness and behavior.
Aim of study: is to assess practices among rural community related to avian influenza.
Material and Methods: Descriptive design, using an interviewing questionnaire and observational checklist, was conducted in Damanhour, Kafr EL-Dooar and Abo El-Matameer Cities. Results: Of the total 210, the entire sample was dealing with poultry; the mean age of the total studied sample was 40 years. The entire sample was females as the common performance of backyard farming in Egypt managed by females, nearly three quarter (74.8%) of the studied houses had birds shed outside the house, half of the studied houses (50.5%) separated the different types of birds, less than half of the studied houses (47.6%) was clean the bird shed and well-ventilated. Nearly all the studied houses (94.3%) had ceiling of shed. Less than three quarter of houses (72.4%) had presence of birds in cages into the shed. The observed practices in this study include monitoring one of the procedures of participant when dealing with poultry; (shed cleaning, dealing with eggs, dealing with dead birds, slaughtering and cooking). The present study shows that more than half of the studied houses had fair score regarding the observed practices. Less than three quarter of the study group (72.9%) heard about avian flu (AF) information from television; few mentioned other sources (e.g., school, doctors, nurses, relatives, neighbors). Regarding total knowledge score, 49.0% of the studied sample had poor scoring.
Conclusions and Recommendations: The level of community knowledge and practices about AI disease was fair. Therefore, designing and implementing health educational programs about AI to improve the community practices should have the priority to encourage people to take a more active role.
Keywords: avian influenza, knowledge, practices, rural.
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