Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Laboratory Personnel Towards the Biosafety Measure For Tuberculosis Testing Laboratory in Selected Health Institutions in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Creators: name: Birhan, Henok
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2014

description: TITLE: Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice of laboratory personnel towards the biosafety measure for tuberculosis testing laboratory in selected health institution in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia By: - Henok Birhanu(Addis Ababa,2014) Background: Transmission of tuberculosis (TB) in health care settings to both patients and health care workers (HCWs) has been reported from virtually every country of the world and TB is the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide, after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and is transmitted mainly through aerosolization of infected sputum which puts laboratory workers at risk in spite of the laboratory workers' risk of infection being at 3 to 9 times higher than the general public. Laboratory safety should therefore be prioritized and optimized to provide sufficient safety to laboratory workers. Objective: - To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of laboratory personnel on biosafety measure for Tb testing laboratories. Method: - A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from August 2013-May 2014 by using convenient sampling technique. A total of 126 laboratories professionals who have been working in Addis Ababa both governmental and private health institutions were enrolled. The data were collected by using well-structured questionnaires. Result: -In this study 126 laboratory professional were involved. Of them37.3% of were laboratory technician and 66.7% were male. Majority of them had &lt;=5 years of work experience and 69.8% recruited from higher clinic. The overall knowledge, attitude and practice of the participant were 67.5%, 81.7% and 42.15 respectively. It was observed a major practice gap towards biosafety measure like only 17(13.5%) had directional air flow, 18(14.3%) had isolated lab,23(18.3%) had color coded plastic container for waste segregation,29(23%) had fire extinguisher,53(42.1) had restrict their lab access,15(11.9%) posted biohazard sign on the lab door,20(15.9%) had updated safety manual,34(27%) had trained on biosafety and only 32(5.4%) appointed biosafety officer. Level of knowledge had significance association with educational level (OR=0.211, 95CI=0.74-0.605, P-value=0.004). Degree holder had satisfactory knowledge as compared to diploma holder. But there were major gaps in practice. Further, the laboratory personnel work in health center had good practice as compared to private higher clinic (OR=6.951, 95%CI=2.773-17.424, P-value=0.000). Working in higher clinic had high risk of getting Tb infection Conclusion: - The study concluded that knowledge and attitude towards biosafety measure is good. However, The relatively good knowledge and attitude were not equally translated into practice. Lack of trained lab personnel and assigned safety officer had major contribution to had poor practice.