Awareness about Malaria Transmission and Its Preventive Measures among Households in an Urban Area of Mandya, Karnataka
Keywords:
Malaria, mosquito bite, insecticide treated netsAbstract
Introduction: Community perception, beliefs and attitude about malaria control can influence the national malaria control program implementation. This study was conducted to assess the aware- ness of malaria transmission and its prevention among urban community dwellers.
Materials and methods: This was a cross sectional study involving 280 households selected randomly. A structured interview sched- ule included demographic characteristics, adult residents' attitudes and understanding of malaria transmission, perceptions of cause, preventive measures and practices.
Results: More than half (64 %) of the subjects mentioned that ma- laria is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes. Only one third (33%) of them could tell that mosquito rests even in dirty and stagnant water. Only 60 % of the total subjects in the study knew one or the other ways of avoiding mosquitoes and 40 percent of the subjects were using it.
Conclusion: Our study found low awareness about malaria transmission among the subjects. The overall practice of one or the other preventive measure was also low.
References
Raja Danasekaran, Geetha Mani, KalaivaniAnnadurai, and JegadeeshRamasamy. Small Bite, Big Threat: The Burden of Vector-borne Diseases. Iran J Public Health. 2014; 43(7): 1014–1015.
Rajiv Kumar Gupta, Sunil Kumar Raina, Tajali N. Shora, Rayaz Jan, Renu Sharma and Shahid Hussain. A household survey to assess community knowledge, attitude and prac- tices on malaria in a rural population of Northern India. J Family Med Prim Care 2016; 5(1): 101–107.
Van Eijk, Ramanathapuram L, Sutton PL, Peddy N, Choubey S, MohantyS et al. The use of mosquito repellents at three sites in India with declining malaria transmission: surveys in the community and clinic. Parasites & Vectors 2016; 9:418
Shivalli S, Pai S, Akshaya KM, D’Souza N. Construction site workers’ malaria knowledge and treatment seeking pat- tern in a highly endemic urban area of India. Malar J 2016; 15 (168): 1-10.
Yimer F, Animut A, Erko B, Mamo H. Past five-year trend, current prevalence and household knowledge, attitude and practice of malaria in Abeshge, south-central Ethiopia. Ma- lar J 2015; 14 :230
Govere J, Durrheim D, Grange KL, Mabuza A, Booman M. Community knowledge and Perceptions about malaria And practices influencing Malaria control in Mpumalanga prov- ince, South Africa. S Afr med J 2000; 90: 611-616
K Park. Park’s Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 21st ed. Jabalpur: Bhanot Publishers; 2011. p 380.
Heggenhougen HK, Hackethal V, Vivek P. The behavioural and social aspects of malaria control: An introduction and annotated bibliography. World Health Organization on be- half of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. TDR/STR/SEB/VOL/031. 2003
Adera TD. Beliefs and traditional treatment of malaria in Kishe settlement area, Southwest Ethiopia. Ethiop Med J. 2003;41:25–34.
Tulika Singh, Sanju Sharma, SeetharamiahNagesh. Socio- economic status scales updated for 2017. International Jour- nal of Research in Medical Sciences 2017; 5(7): 3264-67
Nanjesh Kumar S, Rahul Hegde, SanjeevBadiger, K. G. Kiran. A study of mosquito borne diseases awareness, atti- tude and practices among the rural population in Karna- taka, India. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2017;4(11):4178-4181
Tripathy A, Mohanty AK, Kar SK. Knowledge, practices and gender discrepancies of migrant labours concerning malaria in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Int J Res Med Sci 2016;4:2955-60.
Patel AB, Rathod H, Shah P, Patel V, Garsondiya J, Sharma
R. Perceptions regarding mosquito borne Diseases in an ur- ban area of Rajkot city. National J Med Res. 2011;1(2):45-7.
Abate A, Degarege A, Erko B. Community knowledge, atti- tude and practice about malaria in a low endemic setting of ShewaRobit Town, northeastern Ethiopia. BMC Public Health 2013; 13:312.
Ahmed SM, Haque R, Haque U, Hossain A. Knowledge on the transmission, prevention and treatment of malaria among two endemic populations of Bangladesh and their health-seeking behaviour. Malaria Journal 2009;8:173
Al-AdhroeyAH, Nor ZM, Al-Mekhlafi HM, Mahmud R. Opportunities and obstacles to the elimination of malaria from Peninsular Malaysia: knowledge, attitudes and prac- tices on malaria among aboriginal and rural communities Malaria Journal 2010; 9:137
Dhawan G, Joseph N, Pekow PS, Rogers CA, Poudel KC, Bulzacchelli MT. Malaria-related knowledge and prevention practices in four neighbourhoods in and around Mumbai, India: a cross-sectional study. Malaria Journal 2014; 13:303.
Tyagi P, Roy A, Malhotra MS. Knowledge, awareness and practices towards malaria in communities of rural, semi-rural and bordering areas of east Delhi (India). J Vect Borne Dis 2005; 42:30–35
Manana PN, Kuonza L, Musekiwa A, Mpangane HD, Koekemoer LL. Knowledge, attitudes and practices on ma- laria transmission in Mamfene, KwaZulu- Natal Province, South Africa 2015. BMC Public Health 2018; 18 (41):1-7
Yadav SP, Sharma RC, Joshi V. Study of social determinants of malaria in desert part of Rajasthan, India. J Vect Borne Dis 2005; 42:141–146
Sharma AK, Bhasin S, Chaturvedi S. Predictors of knowl- edge about malaria in India. J Vect Borne Dis 2007; 44:189– 197.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The authors retain the copyright of their article, with first publication rights granted to Medsci Publications.
