Lassa fever: knowledge deficits among nurses and non-nurses at a tertiary hospital in Ondo, southwest Nigeria

Introduction: Lassa fever is endemic to many African countries with knowledge deficit linked to increased exposure, morbidity and mortality among healthcare workers.

Objectives: To assess knowledge deficit among nurses and non-nurses.

Materials and methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Results: There were 59 (48.8%) nurses and 62 (51.2%) non-nurses with a male to female ratio of 1:2.9. Their mean age was 34.2±8.0 years. Nurses and non-nurses performed well in 30 (62.5%) and 26 (54.2%) out of 48 knowledge domains respectively. Participants performed poorly in (i) early identification of disease such as negative malaria test in a feverish patient (32.2%) and role of high index of suspicion (34.7%); (ii) knowledge of transmission via body fluid {sweat (43%), saliva (28.9%), semen (21.5%)}, and (iii) decontamination with methylated spirit (22.3%), chlorine (32.2%) and formalin (20.7%)}.

Nurses performed better than non-nurses in identifying (i) Mastomys natalensis as carrier for Lassa fever virus (p=0.049) (ii) deafness as a Lassa fever sequelae (p=0.041) (iii) semen (p=0.008) and vagina secretion (p=0.035) as routes of transmission (iv) nurses being directly at risk of Lassa fever (p = <0.01) (v) patient avoidance (p=0.004), hand washing (p=0.004), use of hand sanitizer (p=0.046) and safe waste disposal (p=0.047) as helpful in reducing Lassa fever infection.

Conclusion: Knowledge of Lassa fever among healthcare workers in the tertiary hospital was generally unsatisfactory with serious knowledge deficits in many domains.