How villagers in central Sierra Leone understand infection risks under threat of Covid-19
How villagers in central Sierra Leone understand infection risks under threat of Covid-19
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0235108
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发表时间：
2020-06-24
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Richards, Paul
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kamara, Foday Mamoud;Mokuwa, Esther Yei;Richards, Paul
背景 人们对非洲应对 Covid-19 大流行的准备程度表示担忧。教育水平低的农村人口是否知道如何应用社区感染控制？我们在塞拉利昂中部的两个村庄进行了实地考察，以深入了解面临 Covid-19 的农村人口如何评估流行病感染风险。方法 根据之前接触埃博拉病毒病的情况，选择两个社区——一个有大量病例，另一个通过强有力的社区隔离措施抵抗了感染。我们通过实验游戏评估了对感染风险的理解。这要求玩家表达对两种疾病之一的偏好，一种类似于埃博拉，感染风险较低，另一种类似于 Covid-19，死亡风险较低。球员们没有被告知这些疾病的身份。结果 共有 107 名成年村民参与了游戏（58% 为女性）。一半（52%）更喜欢感染风险较低的疾病模型，29%更喜欢死亡风险较低的模型，而21%的人认为感染和死亡的综合风险相当。尽管埃博拉病毒的经历不同，但两个地点之间的反应差异很小。当被要求解释他们的选择时，48% 的玩家引用了游戏中模拟的感染风险信息，31% 的玩家表示他们的选择反映了对个人行动必要性的认识以及对当地法规的尊重。我们得出的结论是，村民们深思熟虑地评估了疾病风险，并且有些人是很好的直觉统计学家。结论 结果表明，塞拉利昂农村人口保留了 2014-15 年埃博拉疫情爆发的经验教训，并将能够将这些经验教训应用于之前没有实际经验的新传染病。我们的期望是农村人口将了解 Covid-19 控制措施，从而减少严厉执法的需要。
Background Concern has been expressed over how well Africa is prepared to cope with the pandemic of Covid-19. Will rural populations with low levels of education know how to apply community-based infection control? We undertook fieldwork in two villages in central Sierra Leone to gain insight into how rural people faced with Covid-19 assess epidemic infection risks. Methods Two communities were selected based on prior contrasted exposure to Ebola Virus Disease-one with substantial number of cases and the other having resisted infection through strong community sequestration measures. We assessed understanding of infection risks via an experimental game. This asked players to express a preference for one of two diseases, one resembling Ebola with lower risk of infection and the other resembling Covid-19 with lower risk of death. Players were not told the identity of the diseases. Results In total 107 adult villagers played the game (58% women). Half (52%) preferred the disease model with lower risk of infection, 29% preferred the model with lower risk of death, while 21% saw the combined risk of infection and death as being equivalent. Differences in reactions between the two locations were small despite different experiences of Ebola. Asked to explain their choices 48% of players cited information on infection risks modelled by the game and 31% stated that their choices reflected awareness of the need for personal action and respect for local regulations. We concluded that villagers thoughtfully assess disease risks and that some are good intuitive statisticians. Conclusions Results suggest rural people in Sierra Leone retain the lessons of experience from the Ebola outbreak of 2014-15 and will be able to apply these lessons to a new infectious disease for which have no prior practical experience. Our expectation is that rural populations will understand Covid-19 control measures, thus reducing need for draconian enforcement.