oa Use of Health Belief Model to assess risk perception and practices of camel farm owners in Doha about MERS-COV, 2015

MERS-COV is an emerging zoonotic disease primarily originated in Arabian Peninsula, where camel industry and trade are part of the local culture and economy. Camels were proposed to be the possible reservoir. A convenient sample of 78 camel owners were interviewed through a structured questionnaire to assess their risk perception and practices. All were males, mean age of 42.5 ± 12.7 years. Most of camel owners were Qatari (94.9%), working with camels for 10 years or more (85.8%). Most of the owners are aware about the disease (93.6%), mostly from T.V (75.6%). However, only 37% of them know that the disease can be transmitted from camel to human or from human to human. The majority of owners (79.5%) had low to moderate knowledge score regarding MERS-COV. More than half of them had low perceived susceptibility to catch the disease. Perceived reasons for susceptibility were being in close contact with camels (82.2%) or exposure to camel products (76.7%). The majority (74%) feel to be protected from the disease, mostly because their farms are clean (78.1) or due to long history of working with camels without catching disease (69.9%). More than half of owners (54.8%) had high perceived severity score, and thought it can lead to hospitalization (86.3%) or death (69.9%). The most perceived protective measures were washing hands with soap and water (84.9%) and keeping away from sick people (78.1%). The most perceived barriers to using protective measures were being unavailable (56.2%), or unpractical (43.8%). Sixty percent of owners have high self -efficacy score, however, very low percentages were using protective measures (4–12%). Health education sessions should be conducted to camel owners in Qatar to increase their awareness and risk perception about MERS-COV.