Knowledge, Attitude & Practices Regarding Prevention of Dengue and Malaria among Residents of Urban Area in Kolhapur City, Maharashtra

Vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than 1 million deaths every year globally. Since we got epidemic of dengue this year in Kolhapur District, it was very much necessary to plan health education programs in our field practice area. Vector control methods can be successful only if there is community participation and for success of community-based program, it's important to assess community's perception regarding the disease, its mode of transmission and breeding sites. Knowledge, attitude and practice studies help to make educational diagnosis of community.

To assess knowledge, attitude and practices regarding dengue and malaria among residents of urban area in Kolhapur city.

We conducted community-based cross sectional study to know the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding dengue and malaria in our field practice area of urban health centre selecting 480 residents by systematic random sampling technique.

Majority i.e 92% of participants were aware of dengue and malaria as mosquito-borne diseases. Nearly 22% participants could not tell any preventive method against mosquito-borne diseases, 76% people think that preventing these infections is sole responsibility of Government, 32% people don't follow any precautions and around 62% don't follow any method to prevent mosquito breeding in and around house.

There is urgent need to increase awareness about mosquito borne diseases in our community with respect to breeding places, all preventive measures, symptoms, treatment options available in order to prevent and control epidemics in future.