Knowledge and practices of Environmental Health Practitioners in communicable disease surveillance: City of Ekurhuleni

Abstract

The practice of Environmental Health is the pinnacle of the primary level of disease prevention. Furthermore, most communicable diseases can be attributed to adverse environmental exposures. This research was motivated by the increase in communicable disease incidents in South Africa, thus prompting the need to evaluate the practices and knowledge of the custodians of communicable disease surveillance (CDS). The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of Environmental Health Practitioners’(EHPs) in the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) and evaluate the practices applied regarding (CDS). A quantitative descriptive study that with a total population of 95 EHPs, consisting of senior EHPs and Environmental Health Managers respectively was employed. The study revealed that there are irregularities and inconsistencies pertaining to how infectious diseases are investigated and knowledge gap regarding procedures for investigation. The main finding was the need for structured interventions in a form of standard operating procedures and standardized systems throughout the regions. The City of Ekurhuleni is a metropolitan and it constitutes diverse demographics. Therefore, smaller municipalities can benchmark for their surveillance systems. The results cannot be generalized throughout the country, however the they can be utilized as a baseline for evaluation of other surveillance systems in other provinces.