Exploring the relationships between dengue fever knowledge and Aedes aegypti breeding in St Catherine Parish, Jamaica: a pilot of enhanced low-cost surveillance

Abstract

Dengue fever has re-emerged as an increasingly significant global health threat amid diminishing resources pledged for its control in developing nations. Efforts to limit breeding of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti are often hampered by lack of community awareness of the disease. Methods: Sixty-eight households in St Catherine Parish, Jamaica completed a pilot knowledge, attitude, and practice questionnaire as part of a routine container survey for presence of A. aegypti larvae. Results: Infestation levels were high according to traditional Stegomyia indices (Breteau index = 325); however, general knowledge of dengue symptoms, A. aegypti breeding sites, and preventive practices was low. After examining the links between demographic characteristics, dengue knowledge, and the number of breeding sites per house, higher educational achievement was associated with higher dengue knowledge, but also with more unprotected containers. Overall dengue knowledge was not associated with household container counts. Spatial statistics identified weak clustering of larvae-positive containers, and larvae were concentrated in three key container types. Conclusion: Residents may only understand the role of certain container types, and significant gaps in general knowledge of the disease may inhibit vector control. This pilot demonstrates the feasibility of conducting inexpensive, rapid assessment of community knowledge and breeding levels for local governments lacking the resources for a more methodologically robust vector assessment strategy.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Preventive Practices Regarding Dengue in Maracay, Venezuela

“…The use of preventive measures was widespread in the community with four of five households reporting at least one method to avoid contact with mosquitos. Repellents and insecticide sprays were the most popular among the different anti-mosquito methods reported, in agreement with a study in Jamaica 26 and Puerto Rico. 27 Contrary to our results, studies in Sri Lanka, 28 Pakistan, 29 and Laos 30 found that mosquito nets were a popular method of protection against dengue.…”

Health Seeking Behaviour and Treatment Intentions of Dengue and Fever: A Household Survey of Children and Adults in Venezuela

“…The ‘overall knowledge score’ (maximum score: 17 points) was derived by adding one point per correct answer, which equalled the sum of the transmission (maximum score: 1) and the symptom (maximum score: 16) knowledge scores ( S1 Table ). This methodology and scoring of knowledge was used in several other studies [ 31 – 33 ].…”

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Dengue among Adult Population in Felda Sungai Pancing Timur, Kuantan, Pahang

“…This might be due to apprehension towards unfamiliar symptoms of dengue fever prompting the individual to seek immediate treatment. 21,22,24,25,[26][27][28] Our study found that there were no association found between knowledge and attitude of dengue and sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents. In term of age, other studies found that the older age has higher knowledge score compared to younger age.…”