Abstract
BackgroundThe World health Organization (WHO) declares dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever to be endemic in South Asia. Despite the magnitude of problem, no documented evidence exists in Pakistan which reveals the awareness and practices of the country's adult population regarding dengue fever, its spread, symptoms, treatment and prevention. This study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding dengue fever in people visiting tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan.MethodsA cross-sectional pilot study was conducted among people visiting tertiary care hospitals in Karachi. Through convenience sampling, a pre-tested and structured questionnaire was administered through a face-to-face unprompted interview with 447 visitors. Knowledge was recorded on a scale of 1–3.ResultsAbout 89.9% of individuals interviewed had heard of dengue fever. Sufficient knowledge about dengue was found to be in 38.5% of the sample, with 66% of these in Aga Khan University Hospital and 33% in Civil Hospital Karachi. Literate individuals were relatively more well-informed about dengue fever as compared to the illiterate people (p<0.001). Knowledge based upon preventive measures was found to be predominantly focused towards prevention of mosquito bites (78.3%) rather than eradication of mosquito population (17.3%). Use of anti- mosquito spray was the most prevalent (48.1%) preventive measure. Television was considered as the most important and useful source of information on the disease.ConclusionAdult population of Karachi has adequate knowledge related to the disease ‘dengue’ on isolated aspects, but the overall prevalence of ‘sufficient knowledge’ based on our criteria is poor. We demonstrated adequate prevalence of preventive practices against the disease. Further studies correlating the association between knowledge and its effectiveness against dengue will be helpful in demonstrating the implications of awareness campaigns.
Highlights
Dengue virus infection is increasingly recognized as one of the world’s emerging infectious diseases [1,2,3,4]
The only reported dengue fever outbreak in Pakistan occurred in June 1994, and a large number of cases have been reported in the region since [8,9]
A cross-sectional study assessing the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding dengue was performed among people visiting the state run Civil Hospital (CHK) and Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), two major tertiary care facilities in Karachi, during the period November–December 2006
Summary
Dengue virus infection is increasingly recognized as one of the world’s emerging infectious diseases [1,2,3,4]. WHO declares dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever to be endemic in the Asian sub-continent. Dengue is endemic in 112 countries of the world [1]. The only reported dengue fever outbreak in Pakistan occurred in June 1994, and a large number of cases have been reported in the region since [8,9]. The World health Organization (WHO) declares dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever to be endemic in South Asia. Despite the magnitude of problem, no documented evidence exists in Pakistan which reveals the awareness and practices of the country’s adult population regarding dengue fever, its spread, symptoms, treatment and prevention. This study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding dengue fever in people visiting tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan
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