Disease Risk Perception and Safety Practices: A Survey of Australian Flying Fox Rehabilitators.
Interactions with flying foxes pose disease transmission risks to volunteer rehabilitators (carers) who treat injured, ill, and orphaned bats. In particular, Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) can be transmitted directly from flying foxes to humans in Australia. Personal protective equipment (PPE) and...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f22edf5f2bb84bdfbb476ae84b78c447 2023-05-15T15:16:08+02:00 Disease Risk Perception and Safety Practices: A Survey of Australian Flying Fox Rehabilitators. Cecilia A Sánchez Michelle L Baker 2016-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004411 https://doaj.org/article/f22edf5f2bb84bdfbb476ae84b78c447 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4734781?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0004411 https://doaj.org/article/f22edf5f2bb84bdfbb476ae84b78c447 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 10, Iss 2, p e0004411 (2016) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2016 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004411 2022-12-31T03:44:30Z Interactions with flying foxes pose disease transmission risks to volunteer rehabilitators (carers) who treat injured, ill, and orphaned bats. In particular, Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) can be transmitted directly from flying foxes to humans in Australia. Personal protective equipment (PPE) and rabies vaccination can be used to protect against lyssavirus infection. During May and June 2014, active Australian flying fox carers participated in an online survey (SOAR: Survey Of Australian flying fox Rehabilitators) designed to gather demographic data, assess perceptions of disease risk, and explore safety practices. Responses to open-ended questions were analysed thematically. A logistic regression was performed to assess whether rehabilitators' gender, use of PPE, threat perception, and years of experience predicted variation in their odds of being bitten or scratched. Eligible responses were received from 122 rehabilitators located predominantly on the eastern coast of Australia. Eighty-four percent of respondents were female. Years of experience ranged from <1 to 30 years (median 5 years). Respondents were highly educated. All rehabilitators were vaccinated against rabies and 94% received a rabies titre check at least every two years. Sixty-three percent of carers did not perceive viruses in flying foxes as a potential threat to their health, yet 74% of carers reported using PPE when handling flying foxes. Eighty-three percent of rehabilitators had received a flying fox bite or scratch at some point during their career. Carers provide an important community service by rescuing and rehabilitating flying foxes. While rehabilitators in this study have many excellent safety practices, including a 100% vaccination rate against rabies, there is room for improvement in PPE use. We recommend 1) the establishment of an Australia-wide set of guidelines for safety when caring for bats and 2) that the responsible government agencies in Australia support carers who rescue potentially ABLV-infected bats by offering ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 10 2 e0004411 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Cecilia A Sánchez Michelle L Baker Disease Risk Perception and Safety Practices: A Survey of Australian Flying Fox Rehabilitators. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Interactions with flying foxes pose disease transmission risks to volunteer rehabilitators (carers) who treat injured, ill, and orphaned bats. In particular, Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) can be transmitted directly from flying foxes to humans in Australia. Personal protective equipment (PPE) and rabies vaccination can be used to protect against lyssavirus infection. During May and June 2014, active Australian flying fox carers participated in an online survey (SOAR: Survey Of Australian flying fox Rehabilitators) designed to gather demographic data, assess perceptions of disease risk, and explore safety practices. Responses to open-ended questions were analysed thematically. A logistic regression was performed to assess whether rehabilitators' gender, use of PPE, threat perception, and years of experience predicted variation in their odds of being bitten or scratched. Eligible responses were received from 122 rehabilitators located predominantly on the eastern coast of Australia. Eighty-four percent of respondents were female. Years of experience ranged from <1 to 30 years (median 5 years). Respondents were highly educated. All rehabilitators were vaccinated against rabies and 94% received a rabies titre check at least every two years. Sixty-three percent of carers did not perceive viruses in flying foxes as a potential threat to their health, yet 74% of carers reported using PPE when handling flying foxes. Eighty-three percent of rehabilitators had received a flying fox bite or scratch at some point during their career. Carers provide an important community service by rescuing and rehabilitating flying foxes. While rehabilitators in this study have many excellent safety practices, including a 100% vaccination rate against rabies, there is room for improvement in PPE use. We recommend 1) the establishment of an Australia-wide set of guidelines for safety when caring for bats and 2) that the responsible government agencies in Australia support carers who rescue potentially ABLV-infected bats by offering ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cecilia A Sánchez Michelle L Baker |
author_facet |
Cecilia A Sánchez Michelle L Baker |
author_sort |
Cecilia A Sánchez |
title |
Disease Risk Perception and Safety Practices: A Survey of Australian Flying Fox Rehabilitators. |
title_short |
Disease Risk Perception and Safety Practices: A Survey of Australian Flying Fox Rehabilitators. |
title_full |
Disease Risk Perception and Safety Practices: A Survey of Australian Flying Fox Rehabilitators. |
title_fullStr |
Disease Risk Perception and Safety Practices: A Survey of Australian Flying Fox Rehabilitators. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Disease Risk Perception and Safety Practices: A Survey of Australian Flying Fox Rehabilitators. |
title_sort |
disease risk perception and safety practices: a survey of australian flying fox rehabilitators. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004411 https://doaj.org/article/f22edf5f2bb84bdfbb476ae84b78c447 |
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Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
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Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 10, Iss 2, p e0004411 (2016) |
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http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4734781?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0004411 https://doaj.org/article/f22edf5f2bb84bdfbb476ae84b78c447 |
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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004411 |
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PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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e0004411 |
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