Awareness on Avian Influenza among the Workers of Selected Poultry Farms in Dhaka City

Bangladesh is a poor, densely populated country of South East Asia and vast proportion of the people here live under poverty level where poultry is emerging as a huge industry. There are about 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks in Bangladesh, millions of households rely on poultry production for income generation and nutrition. So any mishaps in the poultry industry, such as outbreak of bird flu, would have enormous economic as well as health consequences in Bangladesh. This was a cross-sectional study carried out among the poultry workers of selected poultry farms in Dhaka city. The study was conducted for a period of six months starting from January 2008 to June 2008. A total of 150 poultry workers aged 9 years and above irrespective of sexes were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire by face to face interview. The main objective of the study was to assess the level of awareness on avian influenza among the poultry workers of selected poultry farms in Dhaka city. Data analysis revealed that 98% of the respondents ever heard avian influenza and their main source of information was television (98%). About ninety percent respondents mentioned that it is caused by virus (89.3%). Among the respondents about three fourth (68%) mentioned that it is transmitted by direct contact and 92% had the knowledge on sign and symptoms in poultry. Eighty percent of the respondents had the knowledge on transmission from poultry to human, 63% had the knowledge on transmission from human to human whereas 46.7% had the knowledge on sign & symptoms of avian influenza in human. More than eighty percent (88.7%) of the respondents believed that it can be prevented by vaccine, 56.7% believed that using personal protective equipment’s can prevent it. Though the study sample was small which might not be representative of population however, data would be useful in development of planning and program strategies.