Volume : 6, Issue : 6, June - 2017

Knowledge about H1N1 influenza A among public health personnel of rural Nagpur: A cross sectional study

Sameer Golawar, Abhay Chavan, Milind Somkuwar, Uday Narlawar

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt;">India is amongst one of the most affected countries for cases and deaths of Influenza A (H1N1) globally. Health care workers will be expected to play a leadership role in disseminating targeted implementation preventive strategies and education programs aimed at reducing influenza A related morbidity and mortality. Present</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> cross-sectional</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> study was carried out to assess knowledge regarding influenza A and its association with factors related to the service amongst health personnel of rural Nagpur,</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> including health assistants and ANM who have completed at least 6 months of service.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> We found significant relation of training status with the basic knowledge about H1N1 influenza like causative organism, symptoms, mode of transmission, incubation period and contact treatment among health workers. However, there was no such significance between length of service and outeak work experience with the basic knowledge of H1N1 influenza A</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt;">&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 12pt;">and its treatment. Therefore formal training of health workers irrespective of their duration of service &amp; work experience appears to be the single most significant way to improve the awareness &amp; knowledge about H1N1 amongst health workers.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:&#10;200%"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:&#10;&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>