Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding the cutaneous leishmaniasis among infected patients and their families in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is an important public health problem in different parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on disease has not been studied in AlMadinah. Across-sectional descriptive study was carried out among 86 patient and 177 contemporaneous community cohort of individuals in AlMadinh.  A questioner was prepared to evaluate the KAP of the respondents about CL. The patient cohort survey 86 patients of these mean (S.D) age was 33.1(13.4) and large proportion (83.7%) were males, 54.7% Saudi nationality, and a large proportion (64%) were residing in urban areas. The community survey study included 177 participants. [Mean (SD) age was 33.7(11.5 and a large proportion were males (66.1%).

In the patient cohort, median knowledge score was 54% whereas in community was 36% reflecting a poor knowledge in both participants. Median attitude score in the patient cohort was 76%, and in the community participants was low (48%).

A large proportion approximately (70%) of participants in the patient cohort indicated that they are exposed to insect bites while approximately (79.7%) of community respondents indicated that they are exposed to insect bites. Most of the patients practiced preventive CL disease with a high percent of them used bed nets (69%) and pesticide spraying (67%). whereas in the community cohort practice of these preventive was 66.1% and 75.1%; respectively followed by personal hygiene and window screen (46.3%)

In these two patient and community cohorts KAP regarding CL was sub-optimal. Appropriate measures to underlying causes should be implemented.