Knowledge, Awareness and Practices on Dengue Fever in Rural and Urban Communities

Abstract

In the recent years dengue fever has become global public health concern as there has a dramatic increase of cases of dengue in tropical and subtropical regions around the world, predominantly in urban and rural areas. A community based cross sectional study was conducted among purposively selected 347 participants to ascertain the knowledge, awareness and practices on dengue fever in rural (n=196) and urban (n=151) communities of the Sylhet division, Bangladesh. Mosquito bite as mode of spread (61.22%, 82.12%), Aedes mosquito as the vector (40.83%, 64.52%), day as biting time (40.83%, 64.52%), stagnant water as breeding place (58.16%, 74.83%) and removal of water stagnation as eliminations of breeding place (40.31%, 64.90%) was mainly reported by study participants respectively in rural and urban communities. Fever (53.7%, 68.27%) was identified as a leading symptom of dengue fever. Using of bed nets (61.73%) was a conjoint recognition in rural whereas window screen (40.40%) in urban as effective measures for controlling mosquito bite. Besides preventive measures like use of bed nets (47.96%, 27.81%), window screen (7.14%, 48.34%) and for control measures removal of water stagnation (31.12%, 58.94%) was mostly utilized method in both settings. The awareness on dengue fever found good in both rural and urban communities but knowledge and preventive practices were considerably low which is predominant in rural. It could be improved through increase community participation and educational campaigns.