Healthcare workers' knowledge towards Zika virus infection in Indonesia: A survey in Aceh

Objective: To assess the knowledge on Zika virus infection among healthcare providers (doctors) in Aceh province, Indonesia.

Methods: A self-administered internet based survey was conducted from 3 May to 3 June 2016 among the members of doctor organizations in Aceh province. A set of validated, pre-tested questionnaire was used to measure knowledge regarding Zika infection and to collect a range of explanatory variables. A two-steps logistic regression analysis was employed to assess the association of participants' demographic, workplace characteristics and other explanatory variables with the knowledge.

Results: A total of 442 participants included in the final analysis and 35.9% of them (159) had a good knowledge on Zika infection. Multivariate model revealed that type of occupation, type of workplace, availability of access to medical journals and experience made Zika disease as differential diagnose were associated with knowledge on Zika infection. In addition, three significant source of information regarding Zika were online media (60%), medical article or medical news (16.2%) and television (13.2%).

Conclusion: The knowledge of the doctors in Aceh regarding Zika infection is relatively low. Doctors who have a good knowledge on Zika infection are more confident to established Zika disease as differential diagnosis in their clinical setting. Therefore, such program to increase healthcare providers' knowledge regarding Zika infection is needed to screen potential carriers of Zika infection.