Abstract:
Tuberculosis is described as a global emergency and it is found more in developing countries. For this reason, a descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among TB patients seen at District Hospital Enugu Ezike, Enugu State. The objectives of the study were: to assess the level of knowledge of the respondents about the cause of tuberculosis, to assess the level of knowledge of preventive practices on tuberculosis among the respondents and to assess the level of knowledge of community treatment facilities among the respondents.
Methods:
This was a study among 360 patients in District Hospital Enugu Ezike in Enugu state. Designed questionnaires were administered by trained interviewers to obtain information about their perception of cause, prevention and treatment for TB.
Results:
About 56.7% of the respondents were not aware of the cause of TB. 44.4% of the respondents got the knowledge about TB through the health workers. Up to 83.3% of the patients could mention at least one sign or symptom of TB correctly. Also, 71.7% of the respondents stated that TB could be prevented by proper disposal of sputum while 68.9% were aware that sneezing and coughing without covering the nose and mouth enhances the spread of TB. The result also shows that only 15.3% sought for treatment from hospitals/health centres on noticing the first sign of TB while majority went elsewhere (chemist shop and herbalist) until their condition got worse before they went to hospitals. Majority (93.3%) of the respondents indicated that orthodox medicine was better for treating TB while 93.9% stated that TB could be totally cured. Only18.1% were aware of a vaccine against TB while 32.5% were in support of immunizing children against TB. 74.4% of the respondents indicated that they were aware that there is a TB treatment centre in their community. About 63.6% stated that they travel for more than 5km before they could access TB treatment.
The Pearson’s chi-square used in testing null hypotheses I, II and III indicated values of 0.299, 0.287and 0.372 respectively. These results were greater than the statistically significant differences at 0.05 level of significance, therefore the null hypotheses I, II and III all were accepted.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that there were a high level of awareness of the symptoms, prevention, as well as curability of TB, the same cannot be said about causation. Awareness about availability of TB vaccine was poor. This study has therefore demonstrated the need for more health education programmes especially through the media that would improve and sustain the people’s awareness about the TB scourge.
