A two-page questionnaire was developed to evaluate public awareness of melioidosis, and
knowledge about its prevention in the general population in Thailand (Appendix 1). Respondents were asked to provide information on gender, age, and highest level of education. To reduce response bias, we embedded questions about awareness of melioidosis amongst a group
of common infectious diseases in the following order: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, melioidosis,
malaria, leptospirosis, dengue, influenza, and bird flu. The level of public awareness regarding
the list of common infectious diseases were categorized as follows: never heard of the disease, have heard of the disease but had no further knowledge, and know about the disease. Participants were provided with a list of risk factors and asked whether they thought that
each of these increased the risk of acquiring infectious diseases. To reduce the response bias,
the word “melioidosis” was not written in this section, and questions were related to the wider
list of infectious diseases. For example, we asked the participant, “Do you think that exposure
to soil, for example by farming, gardening and walking in the mud, increases the risk of getting
infectious diseases?”