TY - JOUR
T1 - Medical knowledge related to Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Sonora, Mexico
AU - Alvarez-Hernandez, Gerardo
AU - Ernst, Kacey
AU - Acuña-Melendrez, Natalia Haydee
AU - Vargas-Ortega, Anabel Patricia
AU - Candia-Plata, Maria del Carmen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
PY - 2018/3/1
Y1 - 2018/3/1
N2 - Background: Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is a tick-borne disease with a high case-fatality rate unless diagnosed promptly and treated timely with doxycycline. Physician knowledge about presentation and treatment can improve outcomes of RMSF in endemic regions, such as Sonora in northern Mexico, where RMSF has caused 1348 non-fatal cases and 247 deaths from 2003 to 2016. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 343 physicians working in medical facilities in Sonora, Mexico. A 25-item questionnaire explored physician knowledge of clinical, epidemiological and preventive aspects of RMSF. Results: Only 62% of physicians agreed that doxycycline should be used as the first choice treatment for children under 8 years with suspected RMSF. Additionally, 40% of primary care physicians correctly identified the time to initiate doxycycline, and 32% correctly identified the case-fatality rate of untreated RMSF in all patients. Conclusions: Inadequate medical knowledge may adversely affect how patients infected with Rickettsia rickettsii are diagnosed and treated. Educational programs that improve the risk perception and medical knowledge about RMSF should be targeted at physicians most likely to have initial contact with diseased patients.
AB - Background: Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is a tick-borne disease with a high case-fatality rate unless diagnosed promptly and treated timely with doxycycline. Physician knowledge about presentation and treatment can improve outcomes of RMSF in endemic regions, such as Sonora in northern Mexico, where RMSF has caused 1348 non-fatal cases and 247 deaths from 2003 to 2016. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 343 physicians working in medical facilities in Sonora, Mexico. A 25-item questionnaire explored physician knowledge of clinical, epidemiological and preventive aspects of RMSF. Results: Only 62% of physicians agreed that doxycycline should be used as the first choice treatment for children under 8 years with suspected RMSF. Additionally, 40% of primary care physicians correctly identified the time to initiate doxycycline, and 32% correctly identified the case-fatality rate of untreated RMSF in all patients. Conclusions: Inadequate medical knowledge may adversely affect how patients infected with Rickettsia rickettsii are diagnosed and treated. Educational programs that improve the risk perception and medical knowledge about RMSF should be targeted at physicians most likely to have initial contact with diseased patients.
KW - Attitudes
KW - Health knowledge
KW - Mexico
KW - Practices
KW - Rocky Mountain spotted fever
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047434960&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85047434960&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/trstmh/try030
DO - 10.1093/trstmh/try030
M3 - Article
C2 - 29617892
AN - SCOPUS:85047434960
SN - 0035-9203
VL - 112
SP - 109
EP - 114
JO - Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
JF - Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
IS - 3
ER -