Bilewu O Olaolu*, Nusirat Elelu, Adejumo A Adedapo, Ige Taiye and Yusuf F Issa
Background: The outbreak of Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (VHFs) in the West African sub region in recent times had negative consequences on the health systems, international travels, movements and trades. Nigeria is still battling with a significant spread of Lassa Fever (LF) outbreak.
Aims: This study assessed preparedness and community based intervention strategies for prevention and control of Lassa fever in rural Malete, Kwara State.
Methodology: This was a descriptive cross sectional study carried out among. Two hundred fifty nine (259) people in rural Malete. Study respondents were selected using multistage sampling technique. A well structured, paper based, interviewer administered questionnaire w as used for data collection. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25.0, software package for windows (IBM SPSS, 2017) descriptive and classical statistics were adopted and the level of significance for the statistical tests was set at ≤ 0.05.
Result: More than half of the respondents 75(64.7%) in the age group (21-30 years) agree they know strategies against Lassa fever prevention and control in Malete, 35(57.6%) in the age group (31-40 years) of the respondents also agree they know strategies against Lassa fever prevention and control in Malete. Majority 39(77.3%) of respondents in the age group (41-50 years) agree they know strategies against Lassa fever prevention and control in Malete. 12(52%) of the respondents in (51 above years) years category agree that they know if the state regulations for protection against radiation is available.
Discussion: Past epidemic control in Nigeria have occurred, leaving little or no traces of existing control structures behind and preparing no ground for future outbreaks and little or no emphasis on preparedness. Adequate training and retraining of health care providers as well as the establishing well equipped infectious disease clinics, laboratories and research centers would help in the prompt containment, diagnosis and treatment of Lassa and would help in averting possible future outbreaks.
Published Date: 2021-12-31; Received Date: 2021-12-10
