Conocimientos, Actitudes y Prácticas sobre Dengue en Dos Barrios de Bucaramanga, Colombia

Abstract

Identifying knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding dengue control for guiding prevention and control measures. A community survey was carried out using house inspection visits during May 2007 in two neighbourhoods in Bucaramanga having a high incidence of dengue. Mosquito breeding places were identified and education concerning dengue prevention and control measures was provided. EPI-INFO was used for analysing the information so collected. 643 of the 780 households (82.4%) responded to the survey. Most people responding (518) were female (80.6%), average age being 39.6 (16.8 standard deviation (SD)), average schooling lasted 6.2 years (3.5 SD) and average household size was 5 people per house. Regarding dengue, 433 people (67.3%) described it as being a very serious disease; 545 (84.8%) stated that it was transmitted by a mosquito vector and 242 (37.6%) said that it was produced by a virus 59 (9.2%). The symptoms recognised were: fever by 570 people (88.6%), vomiting by 352 (54.7%), diarrhoea by 275 (43.0%), headache by 243 (37.8%), bone pain by 196 (30.5%) and muscle pain by 109 (17.0%). For prevention, 288 (44.7%) avoided stagnant water, 174 (27.2%) washed out their water tanks, 91 (14.2%) fumigated and 101 (15.8%) cleaned their houses. When anybody had dengue, 410 of them (63.8%) would go to a doctor, 129 (20.1%) would go to a hospital and 78 (12.0%) would treat themselves. Larval rate was 26.6% and there had been cases of dengue in 8.4% of the households during the last month. Knowledge about dengue was sketchy. Attitudes were favourable regarding dengue control but preventative practice was inadequate. The community must be educated and empowered to ensure their active participation in prevention and control programmes.