Knowledge Assessment of Kirkuk Technical Students Regarding Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most common infectious diseases worldwide and continues to be a major public health problem for low and middle-income countries. Several effective strategies have been implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent and control the disease, including the directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) and stop TB strategies. The study aim was to assess the students’ knowledge regarding the pulmonary tuberculosis causes, transmission method and the way of diagnosis. Across-sectional study was done on 530 students from different scientific departments in Kirkuk technical institute from the period of 31/12/2009 till 31/12/2010. A special prepared designed questionnaire form distributed to students after complete explanation about the study aim. The study presents that most of students from Health Departments go with the bacterial cause for pulmonary tuberculosis (63.7 %), while (57.5 %) of Technical Department go with the viral cause of the disease in comparison to (42.8 %) of study students from administrative depts. go with the parasitic cause of tuberculosis. The study recommended that the need for innovate the current infectious curriculum to promote TB knowledge and practices among heath students.