Infectious Diseases

To evaluate the current level of knowledge of Ebola virus and to raise community awareness of the risk factors for Ebola infection among medical and para-medical students given that healthcare workers have been especially vulnerable.

Method:This was a field study carried in the campus of University of Mansoura, Egypt. A stand has been divided into 3 stations: a pre-survey, an awareness station and a post-survey. The questionnaire addressed basic facts about Ebola virus and how to prevent it, its route of transmission, risk of morbidity and mortality, treatments available and countries afflicted.

Results: Out of the 1515 peoples participating in the survey there were 703 females and 812 males. A total of 1336 were medical students. 754 said they had heard about Ebola. The internet was the most common source of knowledge about Ebola, as 1273 students stated it as first choice with TV coming in second, with 242 students. Most were met with the answer ‘I don’t know’ in the pre-survey. In the post-survey after a 10 minutes general awareness session about the Ebola virus, 1470 surveyors agreed that Ebola has currently no effective treatment and leads to death. Moreover, after the quick awareness 1491 surveyors answered positively to the question ‘Is Ebola preventable?’

Discussion, and/or Conclusion:Involving community-especially medical students and healthcare workers- in treatment and prevention of Ebola through providing adequate means of awareness; assessment is crucial to containing the outbreak and limiting its consequences.