标题：Environmental Sanitation Attitudes in Buruli Ulcer Endemic Communities and its Potential Impact on MU Infections in the Asanti Akim North District, Ghana
摘要：Morbidity due to Buruli Ulcer (BU) disease, a cutaneous infection caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans (MU), has been increasingly recognized in rural West Africa. The source and mode of transmission remain unknown. Although the disease has received public health attention, its impact on individuals in endemic communities with respect to attitudes towards behavioural sanitation at the community level is yet to be fully explored. In this study, a survey was conducted to access the attitude of behavioural sanitation among respondents of BU communities in relation to MU infections in the Asanti Akim North district, Ghana. Data from these were compared with respondents from their non endemic controls within the same district. Analysis of the results showed that, a greater proportions of BU endemic respondents had knowledge of BU patients (88.57%) compared to the non endemic control (15.71%) (p<0.0001; OR = 41.57). However, they had no idea how they got infected. The study also showed that, majority of respondents (17.14%) in BU endemic communities were themselves past patients of the disease compared to their control (9.09%) (p = 0.0014; OR = 14.28). Environmental hygiene related behaviours of the respondents based on endemicity were also assessed and analysis of the result showed that, a fewer proportions of BU endemic respondents (28.57%) neglected basic sanitation practices compared to their non-endemic counterparts (80.0%) (p<0.0001). The study has shown that, respondents of BU endemic dwellers were not bothered by environmental behavioural hygienic practices and this could possibly exposed BU endemic dwellers to pathogenic assault of MU.
