Brucellosis: Community, medical and veterinary workers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices in Northern Uganda

Research Article

International Journal of One Health, 3: 12-18

https://doi.org/10.14202/IJOH.2017.12-18

Harriet Muloki Nabirye^1,2, Joseph Erume³, George William Nasinyama¹, Joseph Morison Kungu⁴, Jesca Nakavuma³, Duncan Ongeng², and David Okello Owiny⁵

1. Department of Biosecurity, Ecosystems and Veterinary Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062 Kampala, Uganda.
2. Department of Animal Production and Range Management, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Gulu University. P. O. Box 166, Gulu, Uganda.
3. Department of Biomolecular Resources and Biolab Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062 Kampala, Uganda.
4. Department of Livestock Health, National Livestock Resources Research Institute, P. O. Box 96, Tororo, Uganda.
5. Department of Biotechnical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062 Kampala, Uganda.

Background and Aim: This study aimed at determining the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the community, medical and veterinary workers regarding brucellosis.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at selected health facilities in Apac, Gulu, Lira, and Pader districts of Northern Uganda using a standardized questionnaire. A total of 251 patients testing positive for brucellosis using the Brucella plate agglutination test, 59 medical and 29 veterinary workers were studied. Chi-square test at 95% confidence level was used to analyze data.

Results: Only 8% patients, 15.3% medical, and 21.4% veterinary workers were knowledgeable on transmission methods and symptoms for brucellosis and knowledge differed according to the level of education among patients (p=0.001), medical (p=0.001), and veterinary workers (p=0.012). Over 80% patients, medical and veterinary workers had a positive attitude. Only 8% patients, 13.6% medical, and 7.1% veterinary workers had good practices regarding brucellosis control.

Conclusion: Poor knowledge, poor practices, and positive attitude provide an opportunity for health education and policy formulation for the control of brucellosis. The prevalence studies of human and animal brucellosis are recommended to determine the magnitude of the problem. Keywords: awareness, Brucellosis, patients, practitioners, Uganda.

Keywords: awareness, Brucellosis, patients, practitioners, Uganda.

How to cite this article: Nabirye HM, Erume J, Nasinyama GW, Kungu JM, Nakavuma J, Ongeng D, Owiny DO (2017) Brucellosis: Community, medical and veterinary workers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices in Northern Uganda, Int J One Health 2017;3:12-18.

Received: 15-02-2017 Accepted: 12-04-2017 Published online: 05-05-2017

Corresponding author: David Okello Owiny E-mail: owinyd@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2017.12-18

Copyright: Nabirye, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.