Knowledge and management practices regarding dengue fever among doctors of tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Worldwide incessantly menace "Dengue Fever" is a health phenomenon nowadays. We targeted three big provinces of Pakistan including Sindh, Punjab, and Khyber Pukhtoon Khwan. It makes a figure of 21,580 dengue cases and out of them, 317 patients fall in death group. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional case-control study has been conducted at the general tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Physicians, Residents and Interns from all the specialty of targeted the hospital, were included. Four major sections were plotted i.e. general and specified knowledge of Dengue, Dengue symptoms knowledge, Knowledge of practices and management practices of Dengue fever. Results: A randomized sample of 378 respondents was collected during the time period. In General, from 80 to 97% physician mark the correct answer of Dengue Fever Knowledge. It was strongly commented by the results that physicians have advance knowledge of Dengue symptoms. It was also observed that almost every physician has the knowledge Aspirin and Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs must be avoided during the dengue fever or shock syndrome. Conclusion: In spite of a major number of dengue patients in hit list cities, physicians have lack of knowledge about certain topics. Advance knowledge about dengue, symptomatic illness like pain behind the back of eyes is a symptom of dengue, vaccines of dengue, practices, and medication which should not be given to dengue fever or shock patients were found to be Do Not Know by the selected hospital physicians.

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Dengue among Physicians: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Another KAP study showed that only a moderate level of knowledge was observed in 49 percent of the HCPs, with room for improvement in their level of attitude and practice concerning dengue fever (dengue without warning sign) prevention [29]. One study reported that almost every physician in the sample knew that aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs must be avoided during dengue fever or shock syndrome (severe dengue) [30]. However, other studies reported that physicians lacked knowledge about clinical signs, symptoms, and treatment for dengue patients [31].…”

“…One published study anticipated there were significant variations in clinical practice by physician's age group and practice setting [27]. At the same time, other published studies reported that the KAP of healthcare professionals for dengue fever was not well established [29,30,32]. To our best knowledge, there were no KAP studies conducted among physicians in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Turkey.…”