Awareness of bird flu amongst young college students.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the awareness among students about the disease, their attitude during the outbreak, along with their perceptions about treatment, and severity of disease.


METHODS
A cross sectional study was conducted among 220 intermediate students. The data was collected through a self filled questionnaire after taking verbal consent. The variables included in this study were age, gender and department (medical/non-medical).


RESULTS
A total of 220 students participated with mean age of 17 +/- 1 year. There were 132 (61%) males and 84 (39%) females. The students were divided into pre-medical 110 (50%) and non-premedical 110 (50%). About 211 (96%) students said that they had heard about bird flu but only 86 (39%) correctly identified it as a disease of birds and humans both. One hundred and fifty-four (70%) participants said that virus causes it and the most common source of knowledge was media (T.V) by 153 (70%) followed by newspaper 113 (51%) respondents. Flu like symptoms were identified by 77 (35%) and 160 (73%) considered birds to human as the most likely route of transmission. Regarding vaccine, 133 (70%) replied that it is not available and 80 (41%) said that there is a treatment for the disease. About 143 (73%) thought that it is life-threatening. According to 105 (48%) the suitable preventive measure taken by the government would be to kill susceptible chickens.


CONCLUSIONS
The awareness regarding bird flu was quite low among students. As bird flu is a world wide public health problem therefore increasing awareness would be a solution to avoid its spread and complications.
Khan
Saad Akhtar
SA
Ziauddin Medical University, Karachi.
Hashmi
Ibrahim
I
Ranjha
Ali Nawaz
AN
Yosufzai
Mohammad Khan
MK
Hashmi
Shah Kamal
SK
Anjum
Qudsia
Q
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001364:Awareness; D001717:Birds; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D053124:Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype; D005585:Influenza in Birds; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities