Preliminary results about Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices related to prevention of mosquito borne diseases in an urban community in El Salvador
Paola Villegas (Pres), Roberto Mejía, Alexandre Ribó, Moisés Díaz, Edgar Quinteros, Alejandro López, Orbelina Delgado, Ada Membreño, Carlos E. Hernández, David Alfaro
National Institute of Health, Ministry of Health of El Salvador - University of El Salvador
Discussion: 24.08.2015 [Discussion]
In El Salvador mosquito borne diseases cause a serious health problem. Early 20th century Malaria caused thousands of death; however efforts carried out by Ministry of Health almost have mitigated it completely at the end of the century.In recent years the main diseases transmitted by mosquitoes in El Salvador are Dengue and Chikungunya. These diseases especially affect vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women, seniors and people with chronic diseases. However, these diseases do not produce high mortality rates.They produce a high economic loss which contributes to the collapse of the public health system. Over the years the Salvadoran public health system has invested large amounts of resources to minimize the problem through campaigns against mosquito borne diseases that include pesticide application with a logical repercussion to human and environmental health. Between 1946 and 1973 more than 4000 T of DDT were applied to fight against malaria. In addition, government and NGO's did a large efforts to control mosquito borne diseases through community education. Despite this, the population is still affected by the recent diseases as Dengue and Chikungunya outbreak. The objective of this study was to identify what knowledge, attitudes and practices and of the sanitation conditions about the prevention of mosquito borne diseases, in order to better strengthen the prevention programs campaigns to control mosquito borne diseases. This was a cross sectional study in a community of Ilopango, an urban municipality with highest number of Dengue and Chikungunya cases. According to the local health center, the community has 500 inhabitants spread in 190 housing. A questionnaire was given to a representative of each household, reaching a total of 110 house representatives of who were >15 years of age. Remaining 70 houses could not be included in the questionnaire because they were abandoned, there was no representative that could be traced, or they refused to participate. Preliminary analysis of questionnaire provided by each home showed that 74.5% has an acceptable knowledge and 59.1% favorable attitude. However, only 42.1% of surveyed representatives had acceptable practices. Majority of the houses had an inconstant supply of water during the week, which resulted in the inhabitants having to store water in barrels and tins until the water returned. So the knowledge and attitude of the respondents to prevention of mosquito borne diseases were good. However, this situation does not correspond to acceptable practices. The poor prevention practices, the presence of numerous water deposits which are probable to be mosquito breeding sitesrelatedto the irregular water supply system are probable causes of the rapid increase in number of mosquito borne diseases in this community.