Emergency Medicine: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Zika Virus-The Perfect Storm

Roy Rillera Marzo, Teoh Shun Keat, Melody Tey Siang Min, Shirley Ting Suk Lee, Chong Kel Vin, Amaluddin Ahmad, Turani Talukder, Myat Thida Win, Ye Wint Kyaw and Navena Kaur

Background: Zika virus is an arbovirus which transmitted mainly through the mosquito bite, specifically the Aedes sp. Its history can be traced to 1947 when it was first isolated in 1947 from a monkey in Zika forest of Uganda.
Aim: Our objective is to assess the factors that affecting the Zika virus transmission among the population in Bandar Maharani, Johor, Malaysia.
Methodology: A descriptive, cross-sectional study design based on simple random sampling, respondents of aged 18 to 65 years old. Data was collected using an adopted questionnaire from WHO that covered 4 parts i.e. sociodemographic data, knowledge regarding Zika virus, attitudes towards Zika virus and Practices of Zika virus prevention. The collected data was then analyzed by using PASW statistics student version 18 and Microsoft Excel.
Results: The study shows that the knowledge of the participants was only moderate. The attitude was neutral and the practice for prevention was also moderate. It was found that Radio/TV was the most common (77.3%) and most trusted source of information (65.4%). There was significant association between knowledge and attitude (p=0.000); knowledge and practice (p=0.000) and attitude and practice (p=0.000). Knowledge was associated with level of education (p=0.001), race (p=0.000), religion (p=0.028) and current work of the respondents (p=0.000). Attitude was related with religion (p=0.030) and income (p=0.027). Practice of prevention was associated with level of education (p=0.004), race (p=0.000), religion (p=0.004) and current work (p=0.044).
Significance of study: To determine the correlation of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice of the public towards Zika virus will provide a direction for developing a strategy to prevent Zika virus from becoming a public health burden to the community in Malaysia.