Public’s Awareness and Practice of One Health Approach in Preventing Zoonotic Diseases in Sibu-Sire District, East Wollega Zone,West Ethiopia
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Date
2018-10-03
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study was conducted with the objective of assessing public‘s conception and practice of One Health Approach in preventing zoonotic diseases in Sibu- Sire district, Oromia regional state, Southwestern Ethiopia using questionnaires and face-to-face interview technique. The total number of participants consisted of 428. Males (n=316) accounted for 73.8 % and female (n=112) 26.2%. The respondents were stratified into four groups namely, teachers (n=13), students (n=79), farmers (n=299), and nurses (n=37). Among the study groups 83.4% were rural residents and the rest 16.6% urban dwellers. Around 73% of them were married. A total of 251 (58.6%) of the study subjects were illiterate, whereas 41 of them (9.6%) had basic education .The rest 32% (n=137) of the respondents attended from primary school to university education. Many of them (72.6%) of farmers and 63.3% of the students did not know about One Health Approach. Public‘s practice of One Health Approach to prevent zoonotic disease in the area is very low, 66.1% (n=283) of the respondents said that zoonosis prevention through One Health Approach was little. Rabies as a zoonotic disease was known to majority of the respondents (99%), With regard to rabies as a zoonotic disease, there was no significantly (P>0.05) different level of awareness among the different respondent groups which can imply that rabies is a well known disease in the area whereas brucellosis was known by too few respondents (0.7%). There was no statistically (p>0.05) significant association between knowledge about brucellosis and educational status of the participants in this study. A large number (71.1%) of the respondents consumed raw meat regardless of their knowledge about transmission of zoonotic diseases. Majority (95.7%) of farmers do not know the occurrences of zoonosis through inhalation. Over 56% of them do not know direct contact with animals could cause zoonosis. According to this study 74.2% of these farmers do not know handling animals with cut and 62.9% of them sharing the same room with animals could cause disease to human. Similarly 86.6% of the farmers do not know whether human could be infected by zoonotic diseases through vectors. In general, the present study revealed a very low level of awareness by the public about One Health Approach and major zoonotic diseases, signifying the need for public health promotion through education and inter-disciplinary One Health Approach with close collaboration among health extension workers, agricultural extension workers, wild life experts, environmentalist and kebele leaders.
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Transmission, Emerging, Prioritization, Re-Emerging