PUBLIC HEALTH AWARENESS AND BUDGETARY ALLOCATION ON CURBING MONKEYPOX AMONG HEALTH WORKERS IN BAYELSA STATE

Abstract

Monkey pox is a disease caused by monkey virus that weakens the body immunity and leads to degenerated internal organs. Some of the symptoms include high temperature, diarrhoea and skin rashes. Researchers observed that the disease is currently an outbreak in the study area and this may be as a result of reemerging of the disease in the state. Therefore, the researchers investigated public health awareness and budgetary allocation on curbing monkeypox as perceived by health workers in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to examine if (i) public health awareness and (ii) find out if budgetary allocation will curb the disease among health workers in Bayelsa State. Descriptive research design of survey type was adopted for the study. Multi-stage sampling technique consisting of cluster, proportionate and simple random sampling techniques were used to select a sample size of 508 respondents among health workers in Bayelsa State. A researcher-designed questionnaire was used for data collection which was validated and tested for reliability. A reliability coefficient (r) of 0.73 was obtained through split-half method using spearman brown order prophecy statistics. Data collection was conducted by the researcher and four trained research assistants. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages was used to answered the research questions while inferential statistics of Chi-square x2 was used to analyzed the formulated null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that: public health awareness significantly curbs monkeypox infection as perceived by health workers in Bayelsa State budgetary allocation also had significant effect. The study concluded that public health awareness and budgetary allocation help to curb monkeypox as perceived by health workers in Bayelsa State. The researcher therefore, recommended that, public health awareness should be intensified to curb monkeypox infection also the state government should release more money to curb the disease.