Australian Hajj pilgrims’ knowledge, attitude and perception about Ebola, November 2014 to February 2015

A S Alqahtani; K E Wiley; H W Willaby; N F BinDhim; M Tashani; A E Heywood; R Booy; H Rashid

doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES2015.20.12.21072

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Australian Hajj pilgrims’ knowledge, attitude and perception about Ebola, November 2014 to February 2015
A S Alqahtani^1,2 , K E Wiley^1,2 , H W Willaby^1,2 , N F BinDhim³ , M Tashani¹ , A E Heywood⁴ , R Booy^1,5 , H Rashid¹
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Affiliations: ¹ National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (NCIRS), The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, and the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia ² School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia ³ Health Informatics department, Saudi Electronic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. ⁴ School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia ⁵ Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, School of Biological Sciences and Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Correspondence:
A Alqahtani
amani.shelwa gmail.com
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Citation style for this article: Alqahtani A S, Wiley K E, Willaby H W, BinDhim N F, Tashani M, Heywood A E, Booy R, Rashid H. Australian Hajj pilgrims’ knowledge, attitude and perception about Ebola, November 2014 to February 2015. Euro Surveill. 2015;20(12):pii=21072. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES2015.20.12.21072 Received: 11 Mar 2015

Abstract

Upon return from Hajj 2014, 150 Australian pilgrims were interviewed about their understanding of the Ebola epidemic. Most (89%, 134/150) knew of the epidemic before travelling and 60% (80/134) of those knew Ebola transmits through body fluids. Pilgrims who received pre-travel health advice were more conscious of Ebola (69% vs 31%, p?=?0.01) and adhered better to hand hygiene after touching an ill person (68% vs 31%, p?<?0.01). Mass media was the main information source (78%).