Lorraine Strain of Legionella pneumophila Serogroup 1, France

sented in mean ± standard deviation or percentage when appropriate. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS Windows version 12.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) using the χ2 test; p value was set at 0.05. Two hundred thirty-four of 252 secondand third-year medical students completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the respondents was 19 ± 0.87 years (range 18–23). Twentynine percent (n = 68) of the students were male and 71% (n = 166) were female. The mean knowledge score was 4.76 of 18 (total of correct and incorrect responses) (range –6 to 11). Secondand third-year students comparably responded to 16/18 questions (χ2 test). A list of questions and the percentage of students’ responses are provided in the Table. Most of the respondents (67.2%) indicated that mass media (radio, television, and newspapers) was their major source of information about avian infl uenza, followed by scientifi c books and journals (8.3%), the Internet, (13%), and family and friends (10.4%). Only 1.1% of the medical students mentioned “school educational materials” as the source of their information. Our study shows a relatively low level of knowledge of avian infl uenza among a group of Iranian medical students. Surprisingly, mass media was the main source of information in our study. Training health care professionals as well as medical students is of great importance in controlling infectious diseases. The fi ndings of this study should be considered seriously by local health centers and disease control agencies because preparing health care professionals with suffi cient knowledge is essential to confronting a potential pandemic. We believe that the low level of knowledge about avian infl uenza among these medical students is primarily a refl ection of insuffi cient academic courses in the medical school curriculum. We strongly recommend improving the quality of education on this topic through access to textbooks, articles, seminars, and specifi c courses.