Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of the Lebanese Population Towards Vibrio Cholera 2022

Abstract

Cholera is a disease caused by the consumption of food, mainly leafy green vegetables, contaminated with the bacteria Vibrio cholerae which comes from water sources contaminated by sewage. Cholera Outbreaks recur in many developing countries, including Lebanon. On October 6, 2022, the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon reported two confirmed Cholera cases to the World Health Organization. This study aims to identify the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAPs) and the post-outbreak practices among the Lebanese population. Associations between sociodemographic correlates and KAP were assessed by logistic regression. Results showed that 23% of the sample population have a high level of knowledge, 44.8% have a positive attitude, 10.5% have good practice and only 1.4% have good post-outbreak practices. Multiple logistic regression showed that participants with high school level had significantly lower odds of high knowledge compared to those having a university level degree (OR=0.588, CI: 0.351, 0.987). The likelihood of having a positive attitude was significantly associated with gender and education. Participants who are females are more likely to have a positive attitude compared to males (OR= 1.783, CI 1.235, 2.575) after adjusting for education. In addition, having negative attitude was associated with having low knowledge (OR = 1.710 CI: 1.180, 2.478) and with having poor practice (OR = 3.018, CI: 1.755, 5.189). These results can help in assessing the readiness of the Lebanese population to face Cholera outbreaks and highlighting gaps to develop programs and policies to prevent recurrence of the Cholera outbreak.