A Cross Sectional Study of Perception and Preventive Practices, Regarding Dengue Disease among Population of Bangalore District, South India

Across sectional community based study was conducted in rural and urban areas of Bangalore district in India with an objective to study the knowledge, attitude and preventive practices with respect to dengue fever. A total of 1051 adults were interviewed and they were aware of dengue. The health workers were main source of information in rural areas. 85% of rural and 59% of urban population was aware that the mosquito transmits dengue. Majority of our study population knew that high fever, myalgia and head ache are common presenting symptoms, but only 12% of rural and 2% of urban participants were aware of bleeding symptoms of dengue. In our study 44% of rural and only 9.6% of urban participants were aware that the dengue mosquito bites at day time. 40% of our rural and only 5% of urban population said that the mosquito breeds in clean water container. The common self-protective measures used are mosquito coils (75% rural and 68% of urban) followed by mosquito nets (62%) in rural and fans (63%) in urban area. The lack of awareness regarding breeding and biting habit of the vector mosquito has resulted in non-use of protective measures during day time. This requires creating awareness about Aedes mosquito.