The knowledge level of last year medical students in Ondokuz Mayis University about avian influenza

Introduction: Our country, especially Samsun city is localized in the region of wild birds migration way.It can be predictable that probable epidemic can affect our city when we evaluate the avian influenza cases between 2005-2007. In our study, we aimed to ascertain the knowledge level of our medical faculty last year students about avian influenza.
 Methods: The study was planned as defining. 175(%81.7) of 214 last year medical students of our faculty accepted to participate the trial between 1-30 May 2008. The following questions asked to the students with an inquiry form: the avian influenza agent, the group of the agent,  transmission ways, risk groups, clinical features,protection methods and information sources.
 Results: 79 patients(%45.1) were women, 96(%54.9) were men.The median age was 24.6±1.1 years.  73.7% of the participants  knew the influenza agent truly, 55.3% of the whole group knew the agent group. The average points for knowing the spread ways of virus, risk groups and prevention is 6.5 ±1.7, 5.7 ±1.7 ve 6.7 ±1.1 respectively.Although %56.4 of the students knew the therapy of the disease, %33.5 of them stated that vaccination would be protective.The information ways for the disease was television at %74.2 , newspapers/magazine at %46.8 and internet at %36.
 Conclusion: At our study, we found that last year medical students of our faculty did not have sufficient knowledge about avian influenza. The diseases that can cause epidemies in following years must be inserted to routine education programmes to inform them efficiently.

 Key words:Avian influenza, knowledge status, medical faculty, last year students