EVALUATION OF AN INFORMATION CAMPAIGN ABO UT TOXOCARA INFECTIONS IN ANIMALS AND HUMANS

In 1993 the Dutch Ministry of Public Health initiated a campaign about Toxocara and toxocarsis. Before and after the campaign, 200 and 105 v eterinarians, respectively, were interviewed by telephone to get an im pression about awareness of the problem. Before the campaign, 29% and 51% of veterinarians knew when puppies and kittens, respectively shoul d be dewormed for the first time. Fourteen percent of respondents knew the correct anthelmintic dosing interval, and 60% knew the prevalence of T. canis infection in newborn pups. Of the respondent 90% advised, wrongly, anthelmintic treatment during pregnancy and 17% correctly ad vised post-partum deworming. Seventy-three percent of the respondents correctly estimated the risk of infection of humans with T. cati and T . canis. After the campaign, which was remembered by 99% of the respon dents, there was a significant improvement in the number of veterinari ans who knew the correct interval for deworming, routine and post-part um deworming, and infection risk for humans. It can be concluded that while this campaign improved knowledge of certain aspects of the zoono sis, in general, knowledge was still inadequate.