Avian Influenza is becoming one of the serious public health threats in the world and Egypt. Egypt is the ninth country to report laboratory – confirmed human cases in the current outbreak, which began in Vietnam in December 2003. It is the second country in the Middle East (after Iraq) to be affected by Avian Influenza. Egypt has the highest number of confirmed human cases outside Asia since the virus first surfaced in Egyptian poultry in February 2006, with 83 confirmed cases and 27 deaths in August 2009. This cross sectional study was conducted to evaluate house wives awareness toward avian influenza in rural areas through evaluating their knowledge, knowledge about practice and their attitude regarding to the disease. The multistage sample was consisted of 500 house wives selected randomly from Kafer Tosfa and Tosfa villages which follow Kafer Shoukr Headquarter, affiliated to Qalyubia Governorate. A structured questionnaire was used in collecting the data. The study results showed that the studied subjects had a satisfactory knowledge about disease and the main source of their knowledge was TV. Their attitude toward the disease was negative and their practice was poor despite their satisfactory knowledge. This points to the dissociation found between what is known and what is practiced. The study recommended that the health educational message provided through TV should be increased as they are very effective health educational methods. Separating the pigs’ farms from the people houses is essential to prevent the genetic reassortment and prevent creating new pandemic strain. Integration of governmental and non governmental organizations (NGOs) efforts is highly recommended.
Key words : Avian Influenza , Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza , Pandemic, Domestic Poultry , Outbreaks, Community Health
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