RESUMEN
In addition to their economic significance, rodents are hosts and transmit diseases. Most of rodent-borne diseases are endemic in rural Africa and sporadically lead to epidemics. Ngorongoro district is inhabited by humans, livestock, and wild animals. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward rodent-borne diseases among communities. The study used 3 focus groups, 20 key informant interviews, and the questionnaire (N=352) to collect data. The study found that 8.52% of respondents had good knowledge, 35.5% had a positive attitude and 94.3% had good practices toward rodent-borne diseases. The study revealed that only 28.13% of participants were aware of rodent-borne zoonoses. The majority of them (77.27%) believe that rodents are pests that destroy crops and do not transmit pathogens. Moreover, the results showed that the majority of them (82.9%) live in dilapidated huts that serve as rodent breeding places. Additionally, except for education and religion, the level of knowledge had no significant relationship with most of the participants' demographic variables. When compared to individuals who didn't attend school, those with secondary education (OR=7.96, CI=1.4-45.31, P=0.017) had greater knowledge of rodent-borne diseases and management. Similarly, to how attitude and practice were found to be considerably (r=0.3216, P=0.000) positively correlated, general knowledge and general practice scores were found to be significantly (r=0.1608, P=0.002) positively correlated. Despite showing good practices, the communities still lack knowledge of rodent-borne zoonosis. Rodent-borne disease education should be considered in Ngorongoro and other places.
RESUMEN
Epidemics of Rift Valley fever (RVF), a mosquito-borne zoonotic disease caused by RVF virus, have been linked to exceptionally heavy rainfall and widespread flooding. The disease is endemic in most African countries and pose a major global health risk. Given that the disease was reported in various districts of Tanzania, we hypothesized a lack of knowledge about RVF epidemiology among agropastoral and pastoral communities. The research took place in a period of 7 months, from July, 2021 to January, 2022. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) among the agropastoral and pastoral communities of Ngorongoro district towards RVF. The survey employed a mixed method system, which included 3 focus groups (each comprised 12 individuals), 20 key informant interviews and administration of questionnaire (N = 352) in agropastoral and pastoral community members of Ngorongoro district. The relationship between demographic characteristics and communities' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding RVF was observed using a multiple logistic regression model. A total of 352 participants were interviewed, with the majority (67.61%) being male and 32.39% being female, majority (39.5%) attending primary school, and majority (58.2%) being pastoralists. The findings showed that only 36.1%, 38.64% and 16.19% of participants had good knowledge, positive attitude and good practices regarding RVF respectively. Significant demographic factors related with knowledge included: gender (OR = 1.9, CI = 1.03-3.56, P = 0.041), education levels (primary: OR = 3.97, CI = 2-8.16, P = 0.000; secondary: OR = 15.27, CI = 5.5-46.23, P = 0.000 and college: OR = 34. 23, CI = 5.4-67.22, P = 0.000), and locality (Pinyinyi: OR = 0.14, CI = 0.05-0.38, P = 0.000 and Sale: OR = 0.14, CI = 0.04-0.44, P = 0.001). Male participants showed significant positive attitude towards RVF compared to female (OR = 2.37, CI = 1.35-4.17, P = 0.003). Individuals with formal education showed a significant positive attitude toward RVF compared to informal (OR>1, P<0.05). Agropastoral members showed a significant negative attitude toward RVF compared to pastoralists (OR = 0.51, CI = 0.26-0.99, P = 0.048). The calculated RVF prevention practices values were insignificantly (P = 0.853) correlated with knowledge values. The significant correlation between knowledge and attitude, as well as attitude and practice were found (P<0.05). In general, the study revealed poor knowledge, negative attitude and poor practices of communities towards RVF. The lack of regular education programs to make the communities aware of the disease was implicated for these findings. This recommends that provision of health education should be a long-term practice among agropastoral and pastoral communities in order to prevent further RVF outbreaks in Tanzania.