AWARENESS AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS COVID-19 AMONG STUDENTS OF MEDICAL UNIVERSITIES IN TBILISI, GEORGIA.

On December 31st, 2019, a disease, now known as COVID-19, caused by novel coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, China. Since then, new cases of COVID-19 emerge all over the world each day, having a fatal outcome chiefly in those who belong to high risk groups. In order to prevent the disease spread, health regulations have been brought in by the authorities. They have become obligatory to follow in numerous countries, including Georgia, which confirmed its first case in Tbilisi on February 26. During the pandemic, it is crucial for people, especially health care workers to have access to reliable information regarding the disease and its spread. One of the most important groups in this field are the medical students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate awareness and attitude towards COVID-19 among medical students in Tbilisi, Georgia. An online survey was conducted using Google forms and posted in Facebook groups. There were 18 questions in total and the language used was Georgian. All questions were marked as "required" to encourage completion. In total, 178 participants completed the questionnaire from 4 different medical universities of Tbilisi. Answers were compared to a study done locally among the Georgian population regarding knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19, as well as a survey conducted among Iranian medical students concerning the same topic. Our results showed that majority of participants had a high degree of knowledge about the coronavirus transmission, high proportion of students reported practicing social distancing, however some students struggled with distinguishing between coronavirus and influenza. This is the first study estimating COVID-19 knowledge among medical students in Georgia, however it needs further research to assess the situation in other medical universities and attain a larger sample to see a more accurate picture. It would also be interesting to conduct an updated version of the survey, in order to evaluate whether there has been an increase in awareness about this subject.