Healthcare students and workers’ knowledge about epidemiology and symptoms of Chikungunya fever in two cities of Colombia

Autores: Bedoya Arias Juan Esteban, Murillo García David Ricardo, Hurtado Hurtado Natalia, Ramírez Jaramillo Valeria, Granados Álvarez Santiago, Rodríguez Morales Alfonso J

Resumen

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arthropod-borne virus transmitted to humans primarily by Aedes aegypti, also known for being the dengue virus vector. As it is well known, recently CHIKV has become very important due to the increase of cases all over the world, and the report of cases in places where it has not been described yet, as has been in the Americas. It is possible that the incidence of CHIKV infection may be actually higher than believed, possibly because the disease is frequently misdiagnosed as dengue fever, due to their clinical and epidemiological similarities, as well lack of availability of specific diagnostic tests in areas where before 2014 disease was not present. In this epidemiological scenario, assessing knowledge and perceptions in healthcare students and workers about epidemiology, symptoms and transmission of CHIKV in two different cities of Colombia would be highly relevant, particularly because before 2014 no information about CHIKV was managed in this healthcare setting.

Palabras clave: Chikungunya; knowledge; epidemiology; Colombia.

2015-04-09   |   1,544 visitas   |   3 valoraciones

Vol. 9 Núm.3. Marzo 2015 Pags. 330-332 J Infect Developing Countries 2015; 9(3)