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Ali et al
working staff of airports, and the alertness of organizations
toward patients diagnosed with EVD. In this view, health care
professionals are considered among the vital and integral
members of a multidisciplinary team responding to Ebola
virus disease but, in many cases, they become the victims of
EVD themselves while caring for the EVD-affected patients.
Therefore, attempts to implement proper and effective infection control practices in the hospitals are of utmost importance
for all health care workers (HCWs).2-5,8 During Africa's native
Ebola virus outbreak that extended across the globe, World
Health Organization (WHO) had red alarmed the health
authorities to prepare multidisciplinary teams in Pakistan for
preventive action and precautionary measures against the
deadly Ebola virus outbreak.2 For the same reason, this study
was aimed and conducted to assess knowledge about Ebola
virus disease (EVD) among various health care professionals
working in a public sector hospital of Karachi, Pakistan.

Materials and Methods
Study Design and Study Population
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 149 HCWs
in Dr. Ruth K.M. Pfau Civil Hospital of Karachi from June
2015 to August 2015. The study population include undergraduate students of third to final year, studying Bachelor of
Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelor of
Science in Medical Technology (BSMT), and Bachelor of
Science in Nursing (BScN) at Dow University of Health
Sciences (DUHS), Karachi.

Study Instrument and Data Collection
Health care workers are defined as health care professionals who are directly involved with patients for treatment
and management of underlying disease or injury including
the doctors, nurses, medical technologists, and other staff.
Together, all members of a health care team make a diverse
working force contributing toward better health of patients.9
Hence, data were collected from health care professionals
working for at least 2 years and undergraduate students of
third to final year of various disciplines who were posted
at Civil Hospital, Karachi. The study instrument comprises
of a structured questionnaire which consisted of two sections. Part 1 was related to demographic characteristics of
the study participants and part 2 was related to knowledge
of HCWs regarding Ebola virus disease. Knowledge of
Ebola virus was assessed by a 20-item questionnaire,
which included questions regarding virus presentation,
transmission, sign and symptoms of the disease, and about
prevention of Ebola virus disease. The questionnaire was
initially pretested on 25 HCWs and the results were used
to improve the phrasing of questions in the final study
instrument.

Table 1. Baseline Characteristics of the Study Participants
(N = 149).

Age, years
≤35
>35
Gender
Male
Female
Level of education
Undergraduate
More than or equal to graduate
Profession
Nurse
Medical technologist
Doctor
Years of experience
No experience
≤5
>5

21 (17-24)
83
66

55.7
44.3

45
104

30.2
69.8

77
72

51.7
48.3

38
80
31

25.5
53.7
20.8

75
54
20

50.3
36.2
13.4

Scoring
Knowledge of the study participants was categorized as having
appropriate or inappropriate knowledge about Ebola virus disease. Scoring was based on the answers to questions (minimum
score = 0 and maximum score = 20). Out of 20 questions,
correct scores of more than 10 questions (50%) were labeled as
"appropriate knowledge" and incorrect scores of less than 10
(50%) were labeled as "inappropriate knowledge."

Data Analysis
Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21 was
used for the statistical analysis. Cleaning and coding of the
data was done prior to the analysis. Descriptive analysis was
explored using median and interquartile range (IQR) for
quantitative variables, whereas frequency and percentages
were explored for categorical variables. Univariate binary
logistic regression was applied to assess significant association between various qualitative variables and the outcome
variable. All those variables with a P value of ≤.25 were then
selected for multiple logistic regression analysis. Backward
LR method was applied to develop the final model. P value
of ≤.05 was considered as significant.

Results
Baseline characteristics of the study participants are shown
in Table 1. Median age of the participants was 21 (range:
17-24) years. Female preponderance was found to be higher
(104; 69.8%) as compared with the males (45; 30.2%). Among
all of the study participants, 45 were (30.2%) undergraduate

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