Response to anti cholera messages: A survey of highway stopover communities

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the highway markets of Idudi; Mbizzinya; Lukaya and Namawojjolo to assess the exposure of these communities to health education messages on cholera and their response to these messages. A cholera epuidemic broke out in most parts of the country in 1997 and by December 1999; there was a cumulative total of 54;230 cases with 2;267 deaths (National Cholera Task Force). In 1999 alone there were 5;067 cases with 228 deaths giving a case fatality rate of 4.49. The Ministry of Health with support from various donors responded by treating cases at the areas where the patients were and also strengthening preventive measures across the country by carrying out educational sessions using the radio stations; newspaper inserts; posters and film vans. The messages from the Ministry of Health included among others those warning people not to eat cold food and food sold from the streets to prevent infection; and washing hands before eating. The messages also implored community leaders to ban the sale of foods on the streets. However; there are popular stopovers on the highways out of the city which responded by only reducing the selling of their foodstuffs at the height of the epidemic but resumed their brisk business soon after. It was not known how much prevention was being done by the sellers of these food stuffs and what precautions the people who ate this food took to prevent infection. It was therefore important to assess the impact of the anti-cholera messages on the sellers and their customers since the disease was still being reported in some parts of the country