Understanding human-bat interaction as a risk for disease transmission in Najjembe Sub-county in Mabira Forest, Buikwe District

Abstract

Zoonotic diseases continue to pose a health burden at the human-wildlife interface especially in sub-Saharan Africa where majority of the population depends on the ecosystem services to sustain their livelihoods. In Uganda, many people in a bid to survive, have carried out activities that lead to forest deforestation and fragmentation which have shrunk bat habitats causing their displacement and also drawing people close to bats thus increasing the human-bat interaction. However people are unaware of the associated health risks from such interactions .In order to explore and find out activities that increase human-bat interaction, people's knowledge about zoonotic diseases and the knowledge on the influence of human activities in bat borne zoonotic diseases, a cross-sectional mixed methods study was conducted in Jan in 2022 where a total of 304 respondents were interviewed.294 from the general population and 10 key informants from seven villages within and neighbouring Mabira forest in Najjembe Sub-county, Buikwe district. Qualitative data was organized thematically while quantitative data was entered into Excel, cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Majority of the respondents came across bats (69.4%) of which 52.6% encountered them while doing forest associated activities, 26.3% didn't know how diseases were transmitted from bats to humans and 97.7 didn't know how human activities influenced bat borne zoonotic diseases outbreaks and spill overs. This study suggests that the lack of knowledge about bat borne zoonotic diseases has had a great influence on the human bat interaction. This could be harmonized through comprehensive risk communication and health education strategy through multisectorial collaborations. This will help in behavioural change by people towards bats and the natural environment thus averting the risks of future zoonotic diseases' outbreaks.