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105738

Knowledge and attitude of physicians towards 2019 novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: A cross sectional survey from Egypt

Article

Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

Subjects

-

Tags

Infection prevention and control
Infectious diseases
Medical virology

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a serious emerging public health issue and it has been identified as a major risk to human health in 2020. Egypt has more than 100 million population, of whom in poor economic conditions and with low education levels could be vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. Physicians are at the frontiers in battles against the emergence, spread, and control of COVID-19 pandemic. Research data are needed to develop evidence-based strategies to prepare health care systems to deal with the current epidemic. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the level of knowledge and attitudes to COVID-19 pandemic among a group of Egyptian physicians. Methods: From March 15th to March 25th, 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey using non-probability accessibility sampling technique. The structured questionnaire was distributed online through E-mails and social networks to identify the knowledge and attitude among a group of Egyptian physicians regarding COVID-19 pandemic. Result:  The study included 256 physicians. Of the participants, 48% were males 49.6% were females. The mean of total score was (19.6±2.3) out of 23 gained mainly from the social media (50.7%). About 67% of the participants heard of Coronaviruses before this pandemic, 78.5% identified other Coronaviruses. All the participants correctly identified the incubation period and 81.6% correctly identified the typical clinical symptoms. Most of the participants (97.6%) could estimate the fatality of COVID-19. Approximately 95% of the respondents knew no vaccination and 88% correctly answered that no current specific treatment for COVID-19 available. Almost all 98% of the participants knew the recommended general infection control precautions. Most of the participants showed positive attitude, about (97%) agreed that health care workers must avail themselves of all information about the COVID-19. Conclusion: The finding of this survey indicating that, faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, this studied group of Egyptian physicians showed positive attitude and satisfactory knowledge about emerging COVID-19 infection.  Recommendations: Although the Egyptian Ministry of Health (MOH) has taken several major steps to prepare the health care system to be ready dealing with COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to develop educational programs to ensure continuous updated knowledge of the physicians.

DOI

10.21608/mid.2020.32292.1020

Keywords

COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, pandemic, Survey, Egypt

Authors

First Name

Dina

Last Name

Ali

MiddleName

M.

Affiliation

Department of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Human Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt.

Email

dinaalali488@gmail.com

City

Zagazig

Orcid

0000-0002-2501-8309

First Name

Mona

Last Name

Hamed

MiddleName

S.

Affiliation

Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Human Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt

Email

drmonasami@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-6585-159X

Volume

1

Article Issue

3

Related Issue

16205

Issue Date

2020-11-01

Receive Date

2020-06-10

Publish Date

2020-11-01

Page Start

126

Page End

135

Print ISSN

2682-4132

Online ISSN

2682-4140

Link

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/article_105738.html

Detail API

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=105738

Order

10

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,157

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Microbes and Infectious Diseases

Publication Link

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

-

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023