Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Health Care Professionals on Ebola Virus Disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo

摘要

Background: Ebola virus disease (EVD) remains a public health problem. Health workers are constantly at risk of contracting the disease because of the high risk of infection. The Democratic Republic of Congo is in its tenth epi-demic. Objective: This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge, atti-tudes and practices of care professionals about the occurrence of a possible outbreak of EVD. Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional and de-scriptive survey of the care staff of the Moba administrative unit. The period from June to August 2018 was chosen. We administered an adapted CDC-2014 questionnaire to the health care providers in the targeted hospitals. Results: A total of 66 care professionals had participated in our survey. The means age of the respondents was 32 ± 2.1 years, with a male predominance (57.6%) and a nurse (75.8%). The majority of care professionals had good knowledge of the name and reservoir of the causal agent, the severity of the disease, the modes of prevention and the attitude to adopt in case of suspicion of Ebola virus disease, and the year of the last epidemic. On the other hand, the level of knowledge on the definition of the disease, the transmission routes, the virological and clinical aspects and even the number of epidemics that have already affected the Democratic Republic of Congo and the year of the first epidemic was insufficient. The majority of respondents (78.8%; p < 0.01) had never attended Ebola training. Conclusion: The level of knowledge of the care professionals was below expectations. Strengthening care professionals capacity on Ebola virus disease is imperatively required in a short time, given epidemic episodes