Assessment of community knowledge, attitude, and stigma of Buruli ulcer disease in Southern Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Poor knowledge can influence timely care-seeking among persons with Buruli ulcer disease (BUD). OBJECTIVES: To assess community knowledge, attitude and stigma towards persons with BUD in endemic settings of Southern Nigeria. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted among adult community members in four States of Southern Nigeria. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was administered to all participants. RESULTS: Of 491 adults who completed the survey, 315 (64.2%) belonged to the ≤40 years age group, 257 (52.3%) were males and 415 (84.5%) had some formal education. The overall mean (SD) knowledge score was 5.5±2.3 (maximum 10). Only 172 (35.0%) of the participants had a good knowledge of BUD. A total of 327 (66.6%) considered BUD as a very serious illness. Also, there was a high-level of stigma against BUD patients; 372 (75.8%) of the participants felt compassion for and desire to help them, 77 (15.7%) felt compassion but tended to stay away from them, and 53 (10.8%) feared them because they may infect them with the disease. Having a formal education and ethnicity were independent predictors of good knowledge of BUD. CONCLUSION: There is poor community knowledge of BUD in endemic settings of Southern Nigeria which influenced the attitude and perceptions of community members towards persons with BUD.

Assessment of health care workers' knowledge, attitude and risk perception of Buruli ulcer disease in Southern Nigeria.

Background: Poor knowledge of health care workers may be responsible for the under-diagnosis and low notification of Buruli ulcer (BU) in high-burden settings. This study assessed health care workers' knowledge, attitude and risk perception of BU in Southern Nigeria. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 186 health care workers recruited from 58 health facilities in four states of Southern Nigeria. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was administered to all participants. Results: The overall mean knowledge score was 8.8±2.7 (maximum 15). Only 29.0% (54/186) of the respondents had a good knowledge of BU. The mean (SD) attitude score was 4.5±1.2 (maximum 6). Also, 61.3% (114/) of the respondents had a good attitude towards BU. The overall mean (SD) risk perception score was 2.6±1.3 (maximum 5). Only 26.3% (49/) of the respondents had a good risk perception of BU disease. Previous training was an independent predictor of good knowledge (aOR 4.6), good attitude (aOR 3.8) and good risk perception (aOR 2.9) to BU. Conclusions: Health care workers in endemic settings of Nigeria have poor knowledge of and poor risk perception of BU disease. Training of health care workers is recommended to address the identified gaps to ensure earlier diagnosis and referral to specialist centres.

Financial burden of health care for Buruli ulcer patients in Nigeria: the patients' perspective.

BACKGROUND: The economic burden of Buruli ulcer for patients has not been well-documented. This study assessed the costs of Buruli ulcer care to patients from the onset of illness to diagnosis and to the end of treatment. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional cost of illness study conducted among patients with Buruli ulcer in four States in Nigeria between July and September 2015. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on the patients' characteristics, household income and out-of-pocket costs of care. RESULTS: Of 92 patients surveyed, 54 (59%) were older than 15years, 49 (53%) were males, and 86 (93%) resided in a rural area. The median (IQR) direct medical and non-medical cost per patient was US$124 (50-282) and US$3 (3-6); corresponding to 149% and 4% of the patients' median monthly household income, respectively. The overall direct costs per patient was US$135 (58-327), which corresponded to 162% of median monthly household income, with pre-diagnosis costs accounting for 94.8% of the total costs. The direct costs of Buruli ulcer care were catastrophic for 50% of all patients/households - the rates of catastrophic costs for Buruli ulcer care was 66% and 19% for patients belonging to the lowest and highest income quartiles, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Direct costs of Buruli ulcer diagnosis and treatment are catastrophic to a substantial proportion of patients and their families.