Assessment of the level of awareness and knowledge of Chlamydia trachomatis infections among youths in Okada Community, Nigeria

Abstract

This study is designed to assess the level of awareness and knowledge of Chlamydia trachomatis infections among the youths of Okada town, Edo State, Nigeria. The study was conducted between March and June, 2010 with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire administered on 1104 individuals randomly selected from a cross-section of youths in the community. Although majority of the respondents (59.1%) were aware of the existence and importance of Chlamydia trachomatis infections, however, the varied and sometimes misconceived notions revealed that a significant proportion of the respondents had inadequate knowledge of the infections. Only 18.8% of the respondents correctly classified Chlamydia trachomatis as a bacterium, while 12.4% were not sure or could not even classify the microbe and the remaining erroneously believed it was a virus (22.2%), fungus (11.0%), protozoan (11.9%) or helminth (23.7%). Interestingly, 38.9% of respondents correctly associated the bacterium with eye to eye spread by flies, 31.2% knew about its sexual transmissibility and only 5.8% noted its possible oculogenital transfer during parturition; while infection through contaminated air, food or water were incorrectly recorded by some respondents. There is a dire need to evolve strategies to create greater awareness, improve knowledge and initiate Chlamydia trachomatis surveillance and control programmes in Nigeria.