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1666. Community Beliefs about Ebola and Implications for Disease Control in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

BACKGROUND: The current Ebola epidemic in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has surpassed 1,300 cases and 800 deaths. Social resistance is a major barrier to control efforts, and invites an exploration of community beliefs around Ebola and its origins. METHODS: Mixed-methods study, usin...

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Autores principales: Mian, Qaasim, Masumbuko Claude, Kasereka, Hawkes, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6808903/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz360.1530
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author Mian, Qaasim
Masumbuko Claude, Kasereka
Hawkes, Michael
author_facet Mian, Qaasim
Masumbuko Claude, Kasereka
Hawkes, Michael
author_sort Mian, Qaasim
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The current Ebola epidemic in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has surpassed 1,300 cases and 800 deaths. Social resistance is a major barrier to control efforts, and invites an exploration of community beliefs around Ebola and its origins. METHODS: Mixed-methods study, using focus group discussions (FGDs) with key community informants and a 19-item survey questionnaire broadly sampling the outbreak zone. RESULTS: Between 4 to 17 August, 2018, we conducted 4 FGDs (20 participants) and surveyed 286 community members across Eastern DRC. FGDs revealed a widespread rumor in Mangina early in the epidemic of two twins bewitched by their aunt after eating her cat, who developed bleeding symptoms and triggered the epidemic. However, this myth appeared to dissipate as the epidemic progressed and biomedical transmission became generally accepted (medical syncretism). In our survey, 6% of respondents endorsed supernatural origins of Ebola. This subgroup did not differ from other respondents in terms of knowledge of biomedical modes of transmission or resistant attitudes toward infection control measures, but was more likely to believe that traditional healers could cure Ebola. Wild animals of the forest were recognized as sources of the Ebola virus by 53% of survey respondents. Our findings suggest that skepticism and/or denial of the biomedical discourse, coupled with and mistrust and fear of ETUs may fuel “underground” transmission of Ebola outside western-style medical facilities, as patients seek care from traditional healers, who are ill-equipped to deal with a highly contagious biohazard. CONCLUSION: A deeper understanding of beliefs around Ebola origins may illuminate strategies to engage communities in control efforts. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.
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spelling pubmed-68089032019-10-28 1666. Community Beliefs about Ebola and Implications for Disease Control in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo Mian, Qaasim Masumbuko Claude, Kasereka Hawkes, Michael Open Forum Infect Dis Abstracts BACKGROUND: The current Ebola epidemic in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has surpassed 1,300 cases and 800 deaths. Social resistance is a major barrier to control efforts, and invites an exploration of community beliefs around Ebola and its origins. METHODS: Mixed-methods study, using focus group discussions (FGDs) with key community informants and a 19-item survey questionnaire broadly sampling the outbreak zone. RESULTS: Between 4 to 17 August, 2018, we conducted 4 FGDs (20 participants) and surveyed 286 community members across Eastern DRC. FGDs revealed a widespread rumor in Mangina early in the epidemic of two twins bewitched by their aunt after eating her cat, who developed bleeding symptoms and triggered the epidemic. However, this myth appeared to dissipate as the epidemic progressed and biomedical transmission became generally accepted (medical syncretism). In our survey, 6% of respondents endorsed supernatural origins of Ebola. This subgroup did not differ from other respondents in terms of knowledge of biomedical modes of transmission or resistant attitudes toward infection control measures, but was more likely to believe that traditional healers could cure Ebola. Wild animals of the forest were recognized as sources of the Ebola virus by 53% of survey respondents. Our findings suggest that skepticism and/or denial of the biomedical discourse, coupled with and mistrust and fear of ETUs may fuel “underground” transmission of Ebola outside western-style medical facilities, as patients seek care from traditional healers, who are ill-equipped to deal with a highly contagious biohazard. CONCLUSION: A deeper understanding of beliefs around Ebola origins may illuminate strategies to engage communities in control efforts. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures. Oxford University Press 2019-10-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6808903/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz360.1530 Text en © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Abstracts
Mian, Qaasim
Masumbuko Claude, Kasereka
Hawkes, Michael
1666. Community Beliefs about Ebola and Implications for Disease Control in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title 1666. Community Beliefs about Ebola and Implications for Disease Control in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_full 1666. Community Beliefs about Ebola and Implications for Disease Control in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_fullStr 1666. Community Beliefs about Ebola and Implications for Disease Control in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_full_unstemmed 1666. Community Beliefs about Ebola and Implications for Disease Control in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_short 1666. Community Beliefs about Ebola and Implications for Disease Control in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
title_sort 1666. community beliefs about ebola and implications for disease control in eastern democratic republic of the congo
topic Abstracts
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6808903/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz360.1530
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