Background: Exceptional procedures have been adopted by many countries to stem ongoing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The individuals’ adherence for the preventive and control measures are largely influenced by their knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19. The current study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practice of medical undergraduate students within Baghdad City towards COVID-19.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1380 medical students were surveyed online using developed, validated and piloted questionnaire during two week period. Unpaired t-test and One Way ANOVA test were used to assess the association between students’ general knowledge, attitudes, practice, and satisfaction to their demographic characteristics.
Results: The overall score of students’ knowledge about COVID-19 is 91.8% that relied mainly from social media as source of information (36%). More than 90% and three quarters of students have positive attitude and practicing preventive measures towards COVID-19. More than half of students are satisfied with roles played by local health authorities to combat COVID-19. Significant differences were observed among students’ KAP with satisfaction and most of their demographic characteristics particularly medical branch of study (P< 0.05).
Conclusion: Medical students in Baghdad City had generally a higher level of knowledge, possess a positive attitude, and performed a good practice and proactive behaviors of preventive measures towards COVID-19. However, the students were moderately satisfied about the defeating role of the local health authorities towards the illness, hence, our results could be helpful for local health authorities in their awareness campaigns to stem current outbreak.

• Alzoubi H, Alnawaiseh N, Al-Mnayyis A, Abu- Lubad M, Aqel A, Al-Shagahin H (2020). COVID-19 - Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Medical and Non-Medical University Students in Jordan. J. Pure Appl. Microbiol. 14(1), 17-24. doi: 10.22207/JPAM.14.1.04
• GI: COVID-19 (2020). Iraqi government announces new measures. Government of Iraq, March. Available at:https://gds.gov.iq/covid-19-iraqi-government-announces-new-measures/
• Giao H, Han NTN, Khanh TV, Ngan VK, Tam VV, An PL (2020). Knowledge and attitude toward COVID-19 among healthcare workers at District 2 Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine. 13.doi: 10.4103/1995-7645.280396
• Habibzadeh P and Stoneman EK (2020). The Novel Coronavirus: A Bird’s Eye View. Int J Occup Environ Med. 11(2): 65-71. doi: 10.15171/ijoem.2020.1921
• Huang C, Wang Y, Li X, Ren L, Zhao J, Hu Y, et al. (2020). Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 395(10223):497-506. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30183-5
• IMOH(2020). Novel Coronavirus ‪(COVID-19): Update from Iraq’s Ministry of Health. Government of Iraq. February. Available at:‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬https://gds.gov.iq/ar/novel-coronavirus/‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
• Lu R, Zhao X, Li J, Niu P, Yang B, Wu H, et al. (2020). Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding. Lancet. 395: 565–574. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30251-8
• Mahase E (2020). Coronavirus: covid-19 has killed more people than SARS and MERS combined, despite lower case fatality rate. BMJ. 368:m641.doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m641
• Mannan A and Farhana KM (2020). Knowledge and perception toward s Novel Coronavirus (COVID 19) in Bangladesh. Munich Personal RePEc Archive. 6(2): 76-87. Available at:https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/99656/
• Peng Y, Pei C, Zheng Y, Wang J, Zhang K, Zheng Z, Zhu P (2020). Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Associated with COVID-19 among University Students: a Cross-Sectional Survey in China. BMC Public Health. [preprint].doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-21185/v1
• Riou J and Althaus CL (2020). Pattern of early human-to-human transmission of Wuhan 2019 novel coronavirus (2019- nCoV), December 2019 to January 2020. Euro Surveill. 25(4): 2000058. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.4.2000058
• Schoeman D and Fielding BC (2019). Coronavirus envelope protein: Current knowledge. Virol J. 16(1): 69.doi: 10.1186/s12985-019-1182-0
• Taghrir MH, Borazjani R and Shiraly R (2020). COVID-19 and Iranian Medical Students; A Survey on Their Related-Knowledge, Preventive Behaviors and Risk Perception. Arch Iran Med. 23(4):249-254.doi: 10.34172/aim.2020.06
• UNOCHA (2020). United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). IRAQ: COVID-19: Situation Report No.6. UNOCHA. Available at:https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/17032020_COVID19_SitRep_No6.pdf
• Vidon TS (2020). Conspiracy theories and fake news: Fighting the Covid-19 ‘infodemic’. France 24. April 26. Available at:https://www.france24.com/en/20200426-conspiracy-theories-and- fake-news-fighting-the-covid-19-infodemic
• WHO (2020a). WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, Heal. Emergencies. World Health Organization. Availableat:http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/news/news/2020/3/who-announces-covid-19-outbreak-a-pandemic
• WHO (2020b). WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the mission briefing on COVID-19. [Online]. Available at: https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-mission-briefing-on-covid-19 [Accessed on 1st March 2020].
• WHO: EMRO (2020a). Iraq reports a noticeable increase in COVID-19 cases since February. World Health Organization: Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (emro). Available at: http://www.emro.who.int/irq/iraq-news/iraq-reports-noticeable-increase-in-covid-19-cases.html
• WHO: EMRO (2020b). Latest update on COVID-19. World Health Organization: Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (emro). Available at: https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiN2ExNWI3ZGQtZDk3My00YzE2LWFjYmQtNGMwZjk0OWQ1MjFhIiwidCI6ImY2MTBjMGI3LWJkMjQtNGIzOS04MTBiLTNkYzI4MGFmYjU5MCIsImMiOjh9
• Zhong B, Luo W, Li H, Zhang Q, Liu X, Li W, Li Y (2020). Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19 among Chinese residents during the rapid rise period of the COVID-19 outbreak: a quick online cross-sectional Survey. Int. J. Biol. Sci. 16(10): 1745-1752. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.45221
• Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J, et al. (2020). A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 382(8):727-733. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.