Who creates awareness among people regarding various diseases such as dengue and malaria ?
Answers
Answer:
Outbreaks of vector-borne diseases (VBDs) such as dengue and malaria can overwhelm health systems in resource-poor countries. Teachers can act as excellent educators by playing a key role of delivering important health education messages to school children and targeting an important health determinant – the health behavior. This study was done to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of school teachers regarding VBDs and the effect of a sensitization workshop on the same.
Materials and Methods:
This is a cross-sectional study done on 212 school teachers to know their KAP regarding dengue and malaria. They were also exposed to an intervention workshop after the pretest, and the gain in knowledge scores was compared.
Results:
The mean age of respondents was 38.5 years and 57.5% of them were females. Participants had fairly good knowledge about dengue and malaria. More than 90% participants knew that mosquito bite is responsible for dengue and malaria. Around 75% of respondents were also aware of the symptoms of these diseases. The number of participants having a low, medium, and high pretest knowledge score (<50%, 50%–74%, and ≥75%, respectively) was 6.6%, 42.5%, and 50.9%, respectively. A significant improvement was seen in the knowledge score after the intervention workshop (χ2 = 23.6, P < 0.001).
Conclusion:
Key success for mosquito-borne diseases control depends not only on services provided by Health Authority but also on knowledge, awareness, preventive practices, and early care-seeking behavior of the community. There is a need to know and improve existing knowledge and practice regarding mosquito-borne diseases and its control in community, especially with the collaboration of school teachers as health educators.
Keywords: Attitudes and practices, dengue, health educator, knowledge, malaria, school teachers
Introduction
Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are a menace for developing countries[1] due to the explosive number of cases that are reported each year. Outbreaks of VBDs such as dengue and malaria can overwhelm health systems in resource-poor countries.[2] Dengue fever is the most common human arboviral infection globally, transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, and is responsible for more illness and deaths than any other arboviral disease.[3,4] The frequency of outbreaks in India has risen with time, and certain states/union territories such as Delhi have become hyperendemic.[5] In 2015, India experienced one of its largest outbreaks (99,913 notified cases; 220 deaths) with Delhi being most severely affected (15,867 notified cases; 60 deaths).[6] Just like dengue, India is plagued with another VBD that is Malaria. Southeast Asia is severely affected with malaria and India contributes 77% of the disease burden in this area.[7]
In the absence of readily available vaccines, environmental management strategies along with personnel preventive measures can effectively reduce the burden of these diseases.[8] Hence, to achieve best results in vector control, it is imperative to have active community participation through improved knowledge and health-promoting practices.[8,9,10,11] As with many community health problems, the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAPs) of the population play a major role in implementation of control measures of VBDs.
To combat common diseases, the World Health Organization has proposed the use of lay persons as health educators.[12] Schools provide a critical opportunity to children to learn about common health problems and endemic disease and ways to prevent them. Teachers can act as excellent educators by playing a key role of delivering important health education messages to children and targeting an important health determinant – the health behavior.[13,14]
Despite their importance, little attention has been paid to the role of school teachers as health educators. There is not much research available regarding which areas of prevention could be improved at the population level by promoting health education in schools by teachers.[15] Few studies have shed light on their role as health educators to combat diseases such as AIDS and oral diseases.[16,17] Therefore, there is a need to explore areas of prevention and health promotion that can be converted into successful prevention programs at the school levels with the help of teachers.[18,19]
There is little information on the KAP components of the community in relation to the mosquitoes and their control in India.[20] In addition, the literature available on teacher's health behaviors is scarce and inconsistent.[15]
Since teachers have a key role in society as educators, this study was carried out to know school teacher's KAP related to dengue and malaria and the effect of 1-day workshop on their knowledge.
Answer:
I think it's the duty to create awareness among the people is the government, and respective politicians or those who are interested