- 期刊
Assessing the Public's Knowledge and Environmental Sanitation Facilities for the Control of Bacillary Dysentery in Jenai Township, Nantou County
並列摘要
For the purpose of controlling bacillary dysentery in Jenai Township, the present study was designed to evaluate the knowledge of the residents regarding their personal hygiene and related environmental sanitation facilities such as waste disposals, toilet facilities, fly control, drinking water facilities, and household and public drainage. A semi-structured questionnaire was used o collect above information by interviewing 373 household residents of Chinai, Chunyang, Chingying, Hotsuo, and Nanfeng villages of Jenai Township, Nantou County. Forty-eight percent of the residents knew about the symptoms of bacillary dysentery, but only 37.3% and 29.5%of them knew of the communicability and routes of transmission of the bacillary dysentery respectively. Though 73.2% of the residents understood hand washing before meal and after toilet, only 57.4%practiced it. Approximately 52.0%of the villagers knew about hand washing with soaps, only 37.5% did so. An estimate of 35.9% of them knew that waste bins must be covered, and only 23.6% performed it. Around 75.0%believed in boiling water for drinking, and 59.8% actually practiced it. About 60.0% of them knew to cover food after eating, though only 45.8% did so. Wastes in the five villages were disposed primarily by carrying away (83.2%), land filling (6.4%), throwing away (2.9%), and incineration (1.6%). An estimate of 39.7% and 33.5% of the households had latrines and storage tank toilets respectively, only 20.7% of them had septic tank toilets. There were 2.4% of persons solved their problems in the field, or using community or school toilets (24% and 2.5% respectively). Approximately 37.0% of the households had screened doors and windows against flies. Most of the residents (94.5%) used spring water from ditches or water tanks; only 5.1% of them had tap water. In total, 36.2% of the households had covered drainage around the house, 43.9% of the ditches were not covered. In the communities, 50.9% of the ditches were covered, 27.1% were not. It is concluded that to intensify health education is needed for promoting the low level of knowledge about and poor health behaviors on the control of bacillary dysentery. Environmental sanitation facilities (waste disposal, toilet in the house, fly control facilities, drinking water facilities, drainage around house and in the community) were inadequate and should be improved.