Knowledge, Attitude, And Health Education Prevention Practices on Cholera Infection Prevention Among Food Vendors in Two Local Government Areas of Osun State, Nigeria.

Cholera is a severe bacteria disease of Public health concern that has the potential to kill a large number of people, with propensity for swift spread. Vibrio cholerae the causative organism has two serogroups, O1 and O139 that are linked to pandemic and epidemic in humans, contaminated water and food are the main routes of transmission and in 2024 Nigeria has 3.3% CFR. This study compared the effects of Health Education intervention programme on cholera prevention and strategies among food vendors in the Osogbo metropolis. A multistage sampling procedure was adopted after which a two groups simple randomized experimental design was used for this study; it was carried out in two Local Government Areas using three stages, namely, pre-intervention, intervention, and post-intervention stages. The study population comprised of about three hundred food vendors from which a sample size of one hundred and sixteen (116) were drawn. The questionnaire were administered using interviewed administered questionnaire approach, data were analyzed using the IBM Statistical Package for Service Solutions (SPSS) version 22. Most of the respondents 35 (30.2%) fall within age range 41 – 50 years of age. Majority 106 (91.4%) were females, most 98 (84.5%) of the respondents were Yoruba. Most 55 (47.4%) of the respondents has senior secondary certificate. Most 41 (33.3%) of the respondents have been vending for between 5-10years. Majority 112 (96.6%) of the respondents were aware of the cholera infection and the major sources of their information’s were radio 81(72.3%) at (χ 2 = 10.036, P = 0.002) and television 68 (60.7%) at (χ 2 = 5.390, P = 0.014). Forty five 45 (80.4%) of the respondents believed that drinking contaminated water and 40 (71.4%) believed that consuming contaminated food were routes of cholera infection transmission. Most of the respondents 79 (70.5%) at (χ 2 = 1.074, P = 0.300) believed that boiling water for five minutes is a way to prevent cholera infection. Moreover, 66 (58.9%) at (χ 2 = 0.148, P = 0.701) believed that avoiding uncooked food can prevent cholera infection. Meanwhile 74 (66.1%) at (χ 2 =1.434, P =0.231) in the control and study groups believed that cooking food thoroughly can prevent cholera infection and 78(69.6%) at (χ 2 = 1.520, P = 0.216) in the control and study groups believed that washing food with uncontaminated water could prevent cholera infection.Majority 78.60% believed that health education is a tool to reduce cholera infection. Twenty-four (35.8%) of the respondents in the control group and 43 (64.2 %) of the respondents in the study group have good practice towards cholera infection after health education intervention.Fifty four (93.1%) of the respondents in the study group were of opinion that proper hand washing before handling food can prevent cholera infection after health education. In conclusion from this study that health education intervention had improved the cholera prevention strategies among the respondents and there are needs for continuous health education.