Community Awareness about Diphtheria Prevention and Control in Hodeidah, Yemen 2018

Background: Unfortunately; diphtheria occurres in Yemen as a fatal epidemic since the end of 2017. Al-Hodeida governorate (at Western Yemen) is represented as the second governorate in Yemen for the burden of diphtheria epidemic. Different NGOs and ministry of health conducted control measures to combat the epidemic including health education but the awareness of the local inhabitants was not assessed before.

Aim: To assess the community awareness towards diphtheria prevention and control.

Study Design: Cross sectional study

Place and Duration of the Study: Three districts in Hodeidah governorate in Yemen (Al-Hali, Al-Hawak and Biat Al-Faqih districts). The study is conducted during January 2018.

Methodology: A sample size of 336 adults over 18 years of age living in the targeted districts were recruited in the study. The data was collected through patient's home visits.

Results: The mean awareness score of diphtheria is 2.8, this is a poor indicator, because it is less than the expected mean score of 3.5. The mean awareness score in males is 10.9, while in females is 10.3, but the difference is not significant. Only 41% of persons interviewed are aware about the disease (35.3% in Al-Hawak and 31.9% in Al-Hali districts), better awareness were observed in Biat Al-Faqih district (70.7%). Knowledge about the availability of vaccine against diphtheria is of the highest proportion (47.6%) while poorest knowledge is regarding the transmission of the disease (37.5%).

Conclusion: The local community is not aware about diphtheria as a fatal disease.