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Human-bat interactions have been and continue to be a global concern due to their
association with several zoonotic disease outbreaks. Such interactions have initiated the
infection chains that affect global public health and overburdens the national health care
systems leading to high economic losses, increased death rates, and increased food
insecurities. Human-bat interactions are insufficiently studied in Tanzania despite the
presence of huge bat roosting grounds and past outbreaks of bat-related disease outbreaks
and this calls for the need to assess the human knowledge, attitude, practices (KAP), and
behavioral risks associated with human-bat interactions. A cross-sectional survey was
conducted in Kilombero and Mvomero districts, Tanzania. Four hundred sixty-nine
households were interviewed through the use of a semi-structured questionnaire and a
simple random sampling technique was employed in the selection of the households.
For triangulation purposes, eight Focused Group Discussions (FGD) and eight In-Depth
Interviews (IDI) were conducted. Four hundred sixty-nine respondents ( n = 469) were
interviewed out of which three hundred three were females ( n =303) and one hundred
sixty-six were males ( n = 166). Over 52% of the respondents didn’t know that bats were
public health threats (p < 0.05). More so 19% of the respondents were not aware of the
dangers of humans interacting with the bats (p < 0.05), 23% of the respondents did not
know about any disease that can be passed on from the bats to humans. Furthermore,
regarding human practices contributing to bat exposure, results showed, reporting bats to
enter houses
(X 2 = 13.85, p < 0.001), reporting touching bats with bare
hands either dead or alive
guano as an energy source (X 2 = 16;
(X 2 = 5.65, p < 0.05), reporting to have used bat
p < 0.001), consumption of palm sap fed
on by the bats (X 2 = 24.1; p < 0.001) and having used bat manure on their farms (X 2 =
8.04, p < 0.01). The results showed risk factors for the human-bat interactions being; bats entering houses (OR = 2.3, CI:1.1-5.1, p < 0.05) and palm sap consumption fed on by bats
(OR = 1.2, CI: 5.0-22.4, p < 0.01). The findings demonstrate low awareness of the bat
threats and increased human-bat interactions in the communities near the bat roosts.
These are obstacles as this could initiate disease spillover from bats to humans and thus
epidemic occurring. Thus, outreach programs and community sensitization on dangers
and risks linked to human-bat interaction should be carried out. Further research needs to
be done on the seroprevalence of bat pathogens in humans increasingly interacting with
the bats in Tanzania. |
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