ABSTRACT:
The incidence of Organophosphate Poisoning (OPP) continues to increase in develop-ing countries like South Africa, regardless of the measures put in place to reduce the number of cases, namely the surveillance system. The system which used to be paper-based has now become electronic-based to curb delays during the process of notifica-tion. However, underreporting still prevails, even with the simplified system. While the aim of the study was to assess the awareness, knowledge, and perceptions of healthcare workers regarding underreporting of OPP cases, its objectives were set out to determine the degree of underreporting, and to describe the factors associated with underreporting. Primary data was collected from 140 healthcare workers in the institu-tions in Johannesburg District, Region E in Gauteng Province. Retrospective patient medical records of patients diagnosed with Organophosphate Poisoning and surveil-lance records were assessed to measure the degree of underreporting. A total of n=348 cases were identified between the years 2018 to 2021. Only 14.4% (n=50) of the cases were notified, leaving 85.6% (n=298) of the cases not notified. The results are further supported by 22.1% (n=31) of healthcare workers who were not at all aware that OPP is a notifiable medical condition, 25.7% (n=36) were slightly aware, 7.9% (n=11) were somewhat aware, 23.6% (n=33) were moderately aware and 20.7% (n=29) were extreme-ly aware that OPP is a notifiable medical condition. In view of the presented and dis-cussed results it is statistically proven that there is underreporting of OPP in Johan-nesburg District, Region E in Gauteng Province because of the remarkable increase of poisoning cases and healthcare workers are unaware that OPP is a notifiable medical condition, hence the underreporting as they are responsible for notification.