INTRODUCTION: Acute Respiratory Infection is a wide range of infections that affects people of all ages and has a common set of symptoms On the other hand, COVID-19 is a new disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus which can also range from mild to severe. In the perspective of a layperson who is not too familiar with the pathophysiology and features presented by a person with COVID-19, delineating it from an acute respiratory infection will be difficult. OBJECTIVE: To describe the understanding and health seeking behaviors of non-medical frontliners on acute respiratory infections in Zamboanga City METHODS: This is an explorative qualitative study that catered to 20 respondents (police officers and social workers) that qualified to the inclusion criteria of the study. The research tools used in the study were survey questionnaire and a question guide for the semi-structured interview. The respondents were interviewed through phone calls. The responses were documented and analyzed using contextual analysis. RESULTS: The results show that all the respondents had an experience of an acute respiratory infection. The respondents identified causes, signs and symptoms of acute respiratory infection. They also shared their health-seeking behaviors in addressing their acute respiratory infection which changed from pre-coronavirus to during the pandemic. CONCLUSION: Overall, the responses from the participants are influenced by different contexts related to their line of work, their culture, experiences of acute respiratory infection and their environment. These factors affect how the nonmedical frontliners view their acute respiratory infection and also played a part on how they address their illness even during a pandemic.

Keyword: Understanding and health-seeking behavior of non-medical frontliners Acute respiratory infection