Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices On Leprosy In Wa District, Ghana

ABSTRACT Leprosy is a disabling disease that has struck fears into humans for thousands of years. The World Health Organization targeted the disease for elimination by the year 2000 and many countries adopted strategies for its elimination as a public health problem. One major obstacle to achieving this objective is the stigma associated with the disease. The Upper West Region was the only region in Ghana, with all its five districts that had not achieved the elimination target of one case per 10,000 by the end of 2002. This study, which was conducted between June and August 2003, among six randomly chosen endemic communities in Dorimon sub-district of Wa district, sought to find the local perceptions of the disease, treatment seeking behaviours, local etiology and the communities' reactions towards the leprosyaffected people. The study was descriptive and explorative in nature using both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools. It was realized from the study that about 80.5% of the respondents did not have any formal education. The signs of leprosy were well recognized by most of the respondents (87.0%) but the knowledge of pathological cause was lacking. Only about 37.0% could identify microorganism as responsible for leprosy. Many more thought that witchcraft machinations, juju spell and curse could be responsible for causing leprosy. About 32.0% of the respondents associated leprosy with the consumption of the meat of animals like goat, mudfish, hippopotamus, python and giraffe, which they felt might either aggravate or cause the disease. For fear of getting infected with leprosy many people (71.0%) would not allow the leprosy-affected persons to perform household duties. About 49.5% the respondents felt that the affected people should not also be allowed to play leadership roles in the society because they were incapable and might not be respected.