Knowledge and Practices on Prevention of COVID-19 among Traditional Medical Practitioners in Sri Lanka

Introduction: An outbreak of pneumonia of unknown reason was named as COVID-19 by WHO and declared as pandemic. It was observed as most people infected with the COVID-19 virus is mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without getting treatment. Older people with chronic diseases are more likely to develop serious illness. There is no effective modern medicine available so far for the treatment of COVID-19.

Objectives: To assess the Knowledge on prevention of COVID-19 Epidemic in among the Traditional Doctors.

Methodology: Descriptive study was conducted among the 20 Traditional Practitionerson Knowledge and prevention of Corona Epidemic by purposively selected, open ended questionnaire that used a 5-point Likert scale for the response option. Recoding in to different variable and Analysis each question. According to that frequency distribution as 1-3 responses in to1 - Inadequate knowledge 4-5 responses in to 2- Adequate knowledge. The questionnaire included socio demographic characteristics, questions regarding the Knowledge and prevention of Corona Epidemic (Q1 toQ10). SPSS Software (16 version) used for Statistical analyzing. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, mean mode, Slandered deviation and percentage were used to describe variables.

Results: According to the present study mean age was 49.6+1.2737(SD). Considering all the questions Q1 to Q10 Adequate knowledge vary in 50 -80% and Inadequate knowledge vary in 15-50%. In our study 80% of them were mentioned that corona infection was mainly affected to the respiratory tract, most common symptoms were sore throat in 70%, transmission of the Corona infection through air 50%, reduce social distance less than one meter 80% was the main cause for the infection transmission through the society, the precautions for prevent the corona infection through the society that Keeping social distance more than one meter in 85%, The advises given by them in the management lived separately from others until cure the diseases in 45%,The treatment protocol followed them in the treatment Administration of immunity enhancement drugs 30%, wholesome foods and behaviors suitable for corona infection were reducing Kaphadosha (one of the body humor) 35%.

Conclusion: In the present study Considering all the questions Q1 to Q10 most of them have adequate knowledge. Although they were not expressed much details of the treatment protocol in the management. It is recommended that further large scale studies are needed to confirm the knowledge and Prevention of Corona epidemic.