Awareness of the Pandemic H1N1 Influenza global outbreak 2009 among medical students in Karachi, Pakistan (original) (raw)
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A study on swine flu (H1N1) awareness among college students of Valsad city
International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 2017
Swine flu is caused by novel H1N1 virus, lead to the major pandemic in 2009. World Health Organization declared it phase 6 level of pandemic. As of 1 August 2010, worldwide more than 214 countries and overseas territories or communities reported laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including over 18449 deaths. 1 In India, especially Gujarat suffered most from its high case fatality rate with 1674 cases and 144 deaths as on February 2015. 2 By simple hygiene and sanitation measures for cough and respiratory problems, one can effectively prevent swine flu transmission. Correct knowledge and information regarding swine flu helps in taking effective steps to prevent the spread of the flu. The purpose of this study was to know whether the students had enough knowledge ABSTRACT Background: The aims were to study knowledge, perceptions and beliefs regarding swine flu among college students and to study any difference in knowledge between science and commerce students. Methods: A cross sectional study conducted in Science and Commerce College of Valsad city from June-July 2015. Simple random sampling technique used. Total 400 students were randomly selected from both the colleges. The study was started after obtaining the verbal and informed consent from both the college authorities whereas verbal and informed consent was taken from each student. Data collection done by using predesigned, pretested, bilingual language (English and Gujarati) semi structured questionnaire. Students who were present and had given consent to participate in the study been included and those who are absent and not willing to participate are excluded from study. Data were presented in percentages and p value was calculated by Chi-square test. Results: 63.18% and 53.73% commerce, 86% and 84.5% science knows causative agent and other name of swine flu respectively and difference is statistically highly significant. More than 60% of science and commerce students reported cough/sneezing as modes of transmission. 57% science and 40% commerce correctly answer symptoms of swine flu. Television (>35%) was major source of information in both groups. Conclusions: Although students are aware of swine flu but correct knowledge about swine flu is lacking in both the groups. Knowledge regarding key points such as frequent hand washing, avoiding crowding places, vaccine and treatment availability, which is much important during epidemics and pandemics as precautionary measures, was lacking in both the groups.
International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, 2019
Seasonal influenza is an acute respiratory infection caused by influenza viruses which circulate in all parts of the world. There are 4 types of seasonal influenza viruses, types A, B, C and D. Influenza A and B viruses circulate and cause seasonal epidemics of disease. 1 Influenza A virus was responsible for Pandemics of Spanish flu by A (H1N1) strains in 1918-19, Asian flu by A (H2N2) in 1957-59, Hong Kong flu by A(H3N2) in 1968, and swine flu by A(H1N1) in 2009-10. 2 In April 2009, a new strain of influenza virus-A/H1N1, commonly referred to as "Swine flu", first reported from Mexico began to spread in several countries around the world. Evidence that this new strain could pass from human to human led the World Health Organization (WHO) to quickly raise the risk level to phase 6, indicating that a full global pandemic was under way. According to WHO estimates, 1/3rd of the world's population will be affected with H1N1flu within two years and India is no exception. India is ranked 3rd among the most affected countries for cases and deaths of ABSTRACT Background: Swine flu is an acute highly contagious respiratory disease caused by influenza A (H1N1) virus. After 2009 pandemic, seasonal epidemics occurred in 2015 and 2017 usually in rainy season in India. Educational institutes are the centres of high transmission and creating awareness only can arrest the spread. Hence this study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding Swine flu and improve their knowledge. Methods: A health educational interventional study done on 202 eighth and ninth standard school students of Zilla Parishad High School, Kallur, Kurnool district during October and November, 2018 on obtaining informed consent, using a self administered questionnaire. Data entered in Microsoft excel version 2007, analysed and presented in proportions and chi square test of significance using SPSS version 23. Results: 66.8 percent and 68.8 percent of the students heard and knew about viral swine flu respectively. Good knowledge of mode of spread, symptoms and availability of treatment, vaccination and preventive measures regarding swine flu was seen. The gaps in their knowledge levels were successfully filled by health educational intervention. More than 70 percent of students were using hand kerchief and masks in crowded places, willing to approach government facilities for treatment. Conclusions: Extensive mass educational campaigns should be conducted as containment of the spread of the disease can solely be done by making people knowledgeable. Government authorities should train health workers, assistants and teachers and utilise mass and social media to create awareness, thus declining the incidence of the seasonal epidemics.
Global Journal of Health Science, 2012
The World Health Organization confirmed that the novel influenza A, H1N1 as a pandemic on 11 June 2009. After less than three months, 182 countries were affected by the pandemic accounting for about 150,000 infected cases and 3000 mortality. Successful H1N1 pandemic management strategies' shaped by making changes in health behavior. The aim of this study was to document patients' knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) regarding the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) and its prevention. We performed a cross-sectional study on knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on preventive measures of Influenza A (H1N1) involving 322 patients attending Klinik Kesihatan Jinjang, a primary health care clinic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from May 10 to 26, 2010 using a face to face interview with a structured pre-tested questionnaire. The majority of the respondents were females (56.8%), Malays (43.2%) aged between 18-27 years old (28.9%). There were significant association between knowledge on the complication of H1N1, effectiveness of the treatment, preventive measures of Influenza A (H1N1) and race (p<0.001) and educational level (p<0.001). There were also significant associations between attitude scores of these patients and their gender (p=0.03), and educational level (p=0.001). Practice scores related to H1N1 were found to be significantly associated with race (p<0.001) and educational level (p<0.001). The significant associations were observed between knowledge and attitude (p<0.001), knowledge and practices (p<0.001), as well as attitude and practices related to H1N1 (p<0.001). Knowledge has a crucial effect on patients' attitude and practice particularly in a pandemic spread. So health policy makers should attempt to disseminate information about preventive measures to community in order to improve their preventive practices during pandemics.
2015
During an infectious disease outbreak, it is critical to learn as much as possible about the concerns, knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of the public. Such information can be crucial to the improvement of communication efforts by public health officials and clinicians. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices related to influenza A (H1N1) among the OPD patients of Tertiary Care Hospital, Surat. Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out in the tertiary Care Hospital; 507 participants were selected by convenient sampling method from different OPDs. Results: Majority of participants (71.0 %) have heard about swine flu. Major source of information was friends and relatives (37.3 %) followed by Mass Media. About half of the participants have knowledge of symptoms like cough (55.4 %) and fever (53.1 %); knowledge regarding modes of transmission is average to poor, few participants have misconception that sharing meal (1.2 %) and se...
National Journal of Community Medicine, 2018
Background: Knowledge of causative agent, symptoms, mode of transmission and its prevention of Influenza A is necessary to know for individual protection as well as to control the spread of the disease in community. Objective: To study the awareness, attitude and practices regarding H1N1 Influenza A among the people accompanying patients of GKGH, Bhuj. Material and Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted among people accompanying the patients of GKGH after the epidemic situation. Informed verbal consent was taken from all the participants and they were interviewed personally through predesigned and pre-tested questionnaire to elicit information regarding awareness of Influenza A (H1N1). Data such collected was analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007 Results: Of the 227 people included in the study, 105 (46.26%) knew that it was a viral disease. Of all the participants, 123 (54.19%) knew about the mode of transmission. Around three fourth (74.01%) participants told cough & cold as a major symptoms and 71.81% told fever as a major symptom. Less commonly occurring symptoms such as vomiting (7.93%) and diarrhoea (2.64%) were known to few participants. Conclusion: Knowledge regarding Influenza A (H1N1) needs to be enhanced among people through appropriate awareness programs to prevent spread of disease on large scale.
Swine flu awareness in general population
International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 2019
Background: By simple hygiene and sanitation measures for cough, swine flu transmission can be effectively prevented. The purpose of this study was to know whether the people had enough knowledge about swine flu (H1N1) and to assess their knowledge about possible preventive measures to be taken including vaccination against swine flu epidemics.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during November to December 2018. 200 residents were surveyed.Results: In our study, 196 (98%) of respondents were aware of swine flu infection, 170 (85%) of respondents knew that swine flu is due to viral infection while 130 (65%) of respondents were aware that swine flu infection spreads through air while sneezing and coughing. 192 (96%) of respondents knew fever as symptom of swine flu, 166 (83%) of respondents knew cough and cold as symptoms while 128 (64%) of respondents knew headache and body ache as symptoms. 188 (94%) of respondents were aware that vaccination against Swine flu can prevent...
Awareness of H1N1 influenza among Pakistani pharmacy students
Russian Open Medical Journal
Aim — This study was aimed to investigate knowledge and attitudes of H1N1 influenza among pharmacy students. Material and Methods — A cross-sectional study was carried out among undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Punjab University College of Pharmacy, University of the Punjab, Lahore from February-May 2018. A self-administered questionnaire was used to evaluate knowledge and attitudes of H1N1 influenza. All data were analyzed using SPSS 22. Results — The median age of study participants (N=420) was 20 years, with majority of females (72.4%), undergraduate students (96.7%) belonging to middle economic class (89.8%). The median knowledge score was 18, with 38.1% having poor, 55.7% moderate and 6.2% excellent knowledge score (score <17, 17-25, and 26-34, respectively). The median attitude score was 47 (9); around 52% of the participants were found to have positive attitudes. Initially, there was a significant difference of knowledge score, not attitude, among age categor...
AL-Kindy College Medical Journal, 2021
Background: The study was designed for the assessment of the knowledge of medical students regarding pandemics. In the current designed study, the level of awareness was checked and the majority of students were found aware of SARS-CoV and SARS-Cov2 (Covid-19). Objective: To assess the awareness of SARS-CoV and SARS-Cov2 (Covid-19) among medical students of Pakistan. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out in different universities of Pakistan from May to August 2020. A self-constructed questionnaire by Pursuing the clinical and community administration of COVID-19 given by the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China was used among the 831 students who are enrolled in different medical universities of Pakistan and SPSS version 23 was used to analyze the data. Results: The majority (n=440, 52.9%) were male, (n=525, 63.2%) having age between 18 to 23years and (n=682, 82.1%) were unmarried. In educational status (n=501, 60.3%) were underg...
Background: Avian influenza (AI) is a disease that causes infection in birds with AI A virus. In Malaysia, the first outbreak of AI in poultry was detected in Kelantan on August 2004. This study aimed to examine the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward AI among students in a public university in Pahang, Malaysia. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study had been conducted starting from March 11, 2013 until March 20, 2013 on 100 students. Data regarding sociodemographics characteristics and KAP toward AI had been collected by distributing the questionnaires to the participants in their hostels and classes and were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: The mean knowledge, attitude, and practice were 21.47 (4.181), 44.28 (4.845), and 8.69 (1.921), respectively. There were significant differences regarding the level of knowledge among different group of age (P = 0.041) and departments (P = 0.001). The older group of individuals were more knowledgeable. The students from health science had a higher level of knowledge. Regarding the practices, there was no significant difference in the level of practice toward the prevention of AI across the different gender, age, hometown, and department. There was also the significant correlation between knowledge and practices(r = +0.217, P = 0.030), but no association was found between knowledge and attitude or attitude and practice. Conclusion: Overall participants had moderate knowledge and practices regarding prevention of AI. Nonetheless, they had expressed good positive attitude toward the prevention of disease. Therefore, public health agencies should play a role to spread information and increase awareness among students about this infectious disease.