LASSA FEVER

The study analyzed the Information Needs On Lassa Fever Safety Practices Among Garri Processors And Marketers In Esan West, Esan Central And Esan North East, In Edo State, Nigeria. Specifically, it examined the social economic characteristics of garri processors and marketers in the study area; ascertained respondents awareness of Lassa fever and Lassa fever safety practices; examined respondents access and preferred information sources on Lassa fever safety practices; examined information needs on Lassa fever safety practices; identified the constraints on access to information needs on Lassa fever safety practices. Data was was collected using random sampling method to will be used to select fifty (50) respondents from Esan West, Esan Central, Esan north East L.G.A making a total of one hundred and fifty (150) respondents. Data collected were analyzed by with Logit regression, multiple regression and pearson product moment correlation(PPMC) and Described with descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation for appropriate variables. Findings from this study showed that Majority (82.7 %) were females while (17.3%) 0f the respondents were males. Majority (78 % ) of the respondents were married. The garri processors and marketers mainly had secondary education (48.7%), majority of the respondents had 5-10 years experience in garri processing and marketing. The findings also xi shows that large proportion of garri processors and marketers had household size between 7-9 persons. The major constraints such as High level of illiteracy (mean=3.38) insufficient power supply to charge phones and watch television (mean=3.58), High cost of data (mean=3.13), Non-available information material on Lassa fever (mean=3.6) were the serous constraints affecting the access and use of information on Lassa fever safety practices. The results also shows that Radio (mean=3.57), television (mean=3.62), friends and family (mean=3.28), internet (mean=2.81) and Healthcare providers (mean=2.86) were the preferred information sources for Lassa fever safety practices among garri processors and marketers.

The preceptorship programme was an intervention to increase the knowledge of Lassa fever prevention among health workers and patients in lily hospital at Oredo Local Government Area, Benin city, Edo State. Nigeria On getting approval from the department to carry out the preceptorship programmed in lily hospital, the researcher moved to the preceptorship programmed area. The researcher got an introductory letter from the Department of Health, Safety and Environmental Education, University of Benin which was submitted to the chief medical officer at lily hospital and was approved by the director

One of the media through which Lassa fever spread or contracted in recent time is rats through Garri consumption. Garri is an household staple food in Nigeria that is consumed by all. There documenting the information needs of Garri consumers in a State like Edo in Nigeria will help in identifying the pattern of spread of this disease and how it could be curbed. Therefore, this study was conducted to assessed the safety practices information needs among Garri Consumers in Edo State, Nigeria. The study specifically described the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents, identify the information sources available to the respondents and their preference for the sources, examined safety practices carried out by gari consumers, document safety practice information needs of gari consumers, and analysed constraints faced by gari consumers. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample 150 r spondents in Edo state. However, 148 of them eventually formed the valid sample size for the study. Data were obtained through structured and validated questionnaire and interview schedule and analysed with frequency counts, percentages and Binary Logistic Regression Model and Pearson’s Product Moment Correction. Some of the results of the descriptive statistics showed that 37.2% of the respondents were within the age of 40-49, majority (73.6%) were married, most (46.6%) had a household size of less than 5, 34.5% acquired secondary education, and 36.5% had a monthly income between ₦60000 - ₦89000. Results further showed that almost all the viii consumers got their information friends and family (95.3%), while the most preferred source of information was from fellow consumers. The most imbibed safety practice by the consumers was to cover their gari properly to prevent contamination from rats, while the highest information need of the consumers was on orthodox or herbal treatments for lassa fever. In addition, it was observed that selected socioeconomic characteristics regressed on information needs, sex (wald =2.134), and age (wald =3.968), were statistically significant at p≤0.05 while household size (5.044) was statistically significant at p≤0.01, while a positive, medium correlation (r =0.519) was observed between the lassa fever safety practices and the information need of the consumers. It was concluded that respondents had high information needs for Lassa fever but the available information sources available to them may present unverified information which is not healthy to the society.