Title: Knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of the Dengue Disease among Healthcare

Professionals (HCPs) in Southern Taiwan.

Abstract

Based on this study, it takes a very deep dive into the understanding on how knowledge,
attitudes, and practices (KAP) of dengue diseases among Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) in
Southern Taiwan. The earliest medical professionals to diagnose, notify, and treat cases of
dengue are the doctors and nurses. Primary healthcare providers' knowledge, attitudes, and
practices (KAP) on dengue illnesses aid in early detection and enhance the effectiveness of
dengue control measures. Based on the article, its main goal is to understand the major
healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) thoughts regarding dengue in southern Taiwan. The study's
main agenda is to determine potential subjects for further interventional research. This research
was conducted in 2012, and a total of 264 respondents coming from both doctors and nurses
were involved in completing this research article.

A research method of a cross-sectional survey has been conducted for this article relating to
dengue illness in Taiwan. The questionnaire quiz consisted of 10 questions that is related on
control measures, which gives 4 points, notification with 2 points, and clinical features of dengue
diseases with 4 points. A total of 264 test sheets were collected for further analysis. A
demographic data table was constructed all based from the 264 responders.

The majority of the healthcare professionals are aware of the main breeding spots of dengue
mosquitoes. A total amount of three-fourths of healthcare professionals answered wrongly on the
questions about typical skin rashes and the timing of the cases notification. Overall, compared to
physicians, nurses were good at finding incorrect descriptions on the timing to report a dengue
case. Questions regarding the period of communicability were answered correctly majorly from
physicians.
1.0 Introduction

There is currently no vaccine to prevent dengue fever, a severe arbovirus-borne infectious illness
that is widespread in tropical and subtropical parts of the world. Eradicating the vector,
identifying cases as soon as possible, and providing appropriate clinical care are among the main
variables influencing dengue treatment. Taiwan's epidemics follow a distinct pattern of
transmission, beginning with imports from overseas in the beginning of summer, expanding
locally, and concluding in the winter. Since the majority of dengue cases happen in southern
Taiwan, medical professionals (HCPs) must prioritize control.

Quick clinical course identification of dengue patients might guide patient therapy and limit the
spread of the dengue virus within a community. On the other hand, opinions regarding which
clinical characteristics may be utilized to differentiate dengue infection from other febrile
disorders are divided, and there are no recognized clinical standards for the identification of the
initial stages dengue disease.

The main objective of dengue prevention in non-endemic areas of illness is to lower death. Initial
healthcare professionals to diagnose, notify, and manage dengue cases are main care physicians
and nurses. Primary healthcare providers' knowledge, attitude, and practise (KAP) on dengue
illnesses aid in early diagnosis and enhance dengue control results.

2.0 Research Objective

1. To understand the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of primary healthcare

professionals regarding dengue diseases to provide early recognition and improve the
outcome of dengue control.

2. To realize the insights of primary healthcare professionals of dengue in southern Taiwan.

3.0 Research Design

The study used a quantitative method, were they prepared quiz survey and distributed it
to a total 264 healthcare professionals in Southern Taiwan. The data was conducted in the year
2012 and a total of 10 questions were asked which covered control measures, clinical features as
well as notification of the dengue illness. A demographic data was created upon analyzing a total
of 264 answer sheets.

Table 1: Demographic of Healthcare Professionals

 Table 2: Question responses

4.0 Result

Initially, a total number of 331 test sheets were collected from the healthcare
professionals (HCPs), with a response rate of 76%. However, only a total of 264 test sheets were
used for the analysis of the data, after subtracting away 57 sheets which had been filled by non-
healthcare professionals, and 10 of the test sheets were uncompleted test sheets.

There were a total of 130 nurses and 134 physicians, where 86.6% of the physicians are
male and the majority of the nurses are female, with a percentage of 96.9%. Based on the results
received, 43 physicians and 80 nurses were in Medical Centre’s, and majority of the nurses and
physicians are experiences healthcare professionals (HCPs), with above than 10 years of
experience.

Majority of healthcare professionals (HCPs) knows how the mosquitoes breed and
where are the hotspots of reproduction in dengue containment – shown in table 2, Question 1-
Question 3, with percentage of 90% correct. Unfortunately, only half of the physicians and
nurses answered Question 4 correctly, which is, “Dengue is an endemic disease throughout
Taiwan”, with a percentage of 47.7% correct, Question 5 “A suspected dengue case should be
reported to the CDC within 72 hours by law”, with a percentage of 25% correct, and Question 7
“Rash always appears on the second day of dengue fever” with a percentage of 42.8% correct.
Moreover, a total percentage of 57.2% of healthcare professionals did not answer questions
regarding typical skin rashes correctly.

The quiz performance of the nurses and the physicians, who are the healthcare professionals, are
all similar with Question 5, “A suspected dengue case should be reported to the CDC within 72
hours by law” and Question 6, , “The patient may serve as an intermediate host for mosquito
transmission at 1 day before up to 5 days after the onset of fever” as an exception. Based on the
analysis, nurses are way better at finding the wrong descriptions on the timing of report for
dengue illness than physicians. Physicians, however, are better answering the communicability
of the dengue illness correctly compared to nurses.

Those healthcare professionals who were practicing in medical centers had scored better than
their colleagues in the non-medical centers regarding the identifying notification timing,
Question 5, but they did not succeed in knowing the current epidemiologic status successfully

5.0 Discussion

The knowledge, attitude and practice, (KAP), studies on the dengue infection control has
proved the less of knowledge on the controlling measures of Healthcare Professionals. Above
than 90% of the healthcare professionals located in Taiwan are able to deal with the controlling
measure of the dengue virus. Even though dengue is obligated by law to be reported as a
transmissible disease in Taiwan, the majority of healthcare professionals (HCPs) surveyed were
very unaware of the reporting requirement. Medical doctors and nurses act as the first-line
medical providers for diagnosing, notifying, and treating dengue cases at the local and national
levels of dengue control. The efficacy of the dengue prevention is additionally affected by the
main medical providers' understanding of the dengue illnesses. Healthcare professionals (HCPs)
at healthcare facilities and other settings differed significantly in their understanding of dengue
sickness, according to a recent Singaporean research. Compared to healthcare professionals in
non-center settings, more healthcare professionals working in Medical Centre believed Taiwan to
be a highly prevalent dengue location.

In an earlier investigation on the expertise of Taiwanese healthcare professionals

(HCPs) on dengue illness, doctors had outperformed nurses in terms of their understanding of
infectious substances, typical symptoms, disease vector behavior, and epidemic areas.
Nonetheless, in the course of the research, various health care professionals had shown varying
degrees of expertise with the control measure, notification, and the clinical characteristics of
dengue infections. While nurses are less knowledgeable about the dengue epidemic's
communication time, nurses tend to do better than doctors (physicians) when it comes to
answering questions concerning the legal notification schedule.

A conventional method for maintaining health practitioners' clinical expertise up to

date involves ongoing medical education with credit certification. On the other hand, the results
of ongoing training sessions on professional practice and health care results were generally
disappointing and varied. In answer to the needs of primary healthcare providers, more recent
models of continuing healthcare education, such as ongoing professional growth, have been
created. This study emphasizes the value of efficient ongoing education for prevention of dengue
and recommends doing similar research to raise healthcare professionals understanding of
dengue in non-endemic locations.

6.0 Conclusion

Based on the research on the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) on the dengue
disease among healthcare professionals in southern Taiwan, the results of this research revealed
that HCPs in Tainan City were not familiar with the critical clinical aspects of dengue fever or
the timeliness of notifications. A greater focus on these areas must be placed on an ongoing
training for the healthcare professionals in order to enhance dengue prevention in this region.
This is to improve the healthcare professionals’ in regards of their knowledge, attitude, and
practice (KAP) in the prevention of dengue diseases, so that it can increase in improvement for
the future.
7.0 Reference

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards dengue prevention on the dengue disease among
healthcare professionals in southern Taiwan. The article was written by Tzong-Shiann Ho, Mei-
Chih Huang, Shih-Min Wang, Hsian-Chou Hsu, Ching-Chuan Liu, in the year 2012. This article
has been published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC & Formosan Medical Association. dengue
taiwan.pdf