Community knowledge, awareness and preventive practices regarding dengue fever in Puducherry – South India

• The majority of population in Puducherry have poor knowledge about dengue fever.
• The preventive practices against Aedes mosquito breeding in household containers were low.
• Each question was assigned with a score and the score achieved by a respondent was described as his knowledge score.
• No considerable knowledge difference among the middle and high income groups.
• The people were found non-serious as far as waste disposal practices are concerned.

ObjectivesTo ascertain the knowledge, attitudes and practices of adult population in Puducherry, India, regarding Dengue Fever (DF).Study designA cross-sectional survey was carried out to assess the Knowledge, Awareness and Preventive practices (KAP) among a selected community in Puducherry on DF, following a major dengue outbreak in 2012.MethodsBetween October 2012 & February 2013, an epidemiological survey was conducted among 400 households (HHs) from the most affected areas during dengue outbreak, which came under eight health delivery jurisdictions i.e. Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in Puducherry. Knowledge of dengue and the use of preventive measures were assessed by means of a pre-tested structured questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was done to examine the association between different levels of education and income status with the knowledge of DF. The DF knowledge map was created based on the results achieved through the questionnaire using Arc GIS 10.2 software.ResultsAlthough about 86% of the participants had heard of dengue, although there was no adequate knowledge on dengue vector breeding habitat as 68% of the respondents thought drains & garbage as breeding places of dengue vectors. Only 25% of participants were aware of clean water as a breeding habitat. Insufficient knowledge of disease symptoms was found, with fever (59%) being the most common symptom.ConclusionsThere is a lack of in-depth knowledge on dengue epidemiology in the Puducherry community and observation revealed that more needs to be done by the Government as well as community members to prevent vector mosquito breeding.