Out of 12 endemic districts of Nepal still 11 districts have been reported with Kala-azar, among which Morang is the one. It is useful to identify knowledge and practice of people regarding disease for its effective management. But there is dearth of the related study in our country. So this study aimed to assess the knowledge and practice regarding Kala-azar among community people of Dangihat, Morang. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among community people of Dangihat-4, Morang within age group 15-60 years. Interview of 91 respondents by using semi structured questionnaires schedule with purposive convenience sampling technique was done from 3rd Ashwin to 24th Ashwin, 2072. The study showed that only 18.7% had correct knowledge of sandfly while majority (63.7%) thought mosquito as the vector of disease. Regarding symptoms 94.5% and 73.6% mentioned fever and blackening of skin respectively. Two third of the respondents thought cattle shed as the habitat of sandfly and 67% mentioned its biting time to be dusk/ dawn. Most (89%) of the respondents used bed nets and 44% used insecticide for prevention of Kala-azar. There was significant association between knowledge with previous history and source of information of disease and practice with educational level. Most (52.7%) of the respondents had inadequate knowledge while 78% had average practice regarding Kala-azar. The study population had inadequate knowledge and average practice of disease so further awareness programme may be needed in the village.

Appropriate complementary feeding practices are very important for proper growth and development of children. The objective of this study was to find out knowledge and practices of complementary feeding among caretakers of young children. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted by taking 195 caretakers of 6 to 24 months children of randomly selected wards of Ramkot, Sewchatar and Ichangunarayan VDC of Kathmandu district. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Chi square and McNemar test) were used for data analysis. Caretakers having adequate knowledge were 59.5%. Regarding practices, 83.65% had continuing breastfeeding. Only 33.3% of caretakers had started complementary feeding at 6 months even though the72.3% had knowledge on it. Children having minimum meal frequency were 64.65%, minimum dietary diversity were 72.3% and minimum acceptable diet were 52.30%. Practice of feeding Vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables was only 3.1%. In observation, most of the caretakers were doing as they said the interview showing no statistical significance by McNemar test. Occupation (p=0.015), literacy status (p=0.000) and economic status (p=0.000) have the association with the complementary feeding knowledge. Similarly economic status, literacy status and age of caretakers were significantly associated with most of the feeding practices. The knowledge levels as well as most of the feeding practices were found good in caretakers of young children. But the large gaps were found in the initiation of complementary feeding and feeding vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables.