Via practica 1/2014

The importance of information campaigns for expansion knowledge of tick-borne encephalitis

Introduction:There has been an increasing trend of the disease tick-borne encephalitis over the past 15 years in Slovak Republic. The purpose of the thesis is to find out what is the level of knowledge of ticks and specific and non-specific disease prevention in the region with highest occurrence of tick-borne encephalitis. There has been an information campaign run in Trenčín in 2011 focused on myths about ticks and tick-borne diseases. We have compared knowledge of the respondents from the Trenčín District and the Prievidza District. Methodology: The group for research has been comprised of patients of the general practitioner for adults in the Trenčín District and in the Prievidza District. We used a questionnaire of our own design, consisting of 13 knowledge-based questions. We have used methods of descriptive statistics for processing of gained results. Results:Forty-four respondents from the Trenčín District and forty-eight respondents from the Prievidza District took part in the questionnaire research. Respondents in both districts answered the majority of questions right. Despite that there are still some myths prevailing when speaking about ticks. 45 % of respondents are convinced that a tick jumps from a tree. More right answers were from respondents from the Prievidza district regarding questions about how to remove tick. Respondens from the Trenčín District have better knowledge about disease transmission and about non-specific prevention. The differences were statistically significant. However, respondents in the Trenčín District have less knowledge of proper clothing when going to nature. 47.9 % of the respondents in the Prievidza District said that you cannot become infected with tick-borne encephalitis by consuming unpasteurized milk. Respondents in both districts have good knowledge of vaccination. Conclusions:Knowledge of the respondents in both of the districts is on similar level, although the campaign has been run only in the Trenčín District. However, results showed that people still believe in some myths about ticks. Hence, it is still necessary to make public aware of serious diseases and their prevention.

Keywords: tick-borne encephalitis, information campaign, knowledge, prevention.