TITLE:
Knowledge Attitude and Practices Related on Prevention of Mosquito Borne Diseases and Sanitation Conditions in a Salvadoran Urban Community
AUTHORS:
Roberto Mejía, Alexandre Ribó, Edgar Quinteros, Alejandro López, Paola Villegas, Xavier F. Vela, Ada Ruth Membreño
KEYWORDS:
Mosquito Borne Diseases, Knowledge Attitudes and Practices, WASH, Analytic Hierarchy Process, Dengue
JOURNAL NAME:
Occupational Diseases and Environmental Medicine,
Vol.4 No.4,
September
27,
2016
ABSTRACT: Introduction: In El Salvador Mosquito Borne Diseases (MBDs) is a serious public
health problem due to produce morbidity and mortality. 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 MBDs. Despite this, the population
is still affected by diseases such as dengue, and more recently chikungunya and
zika outbreaks. The aim of this study is to evaluate sanitation conditions variables
and identify knowledge, attitudes, practices related to the prevention of MBDs. Methods:
A cross-sectional survey about sanitation conditions and knowledge, attitudes
and practices on prevention of MBDs of inhabitant’s ≥ 15 years from an urban
community of a municipality with the highest number of cases reported in 2015. Results:
Majority of respondents (98.2%) had direct supply of drinking water; however
96.4% of respondents were agreed that they had an inconsistent water supply. Regarding
MBDs prevention respondents showed high acceptable knowledge (76.8%),
high favorable attitude (92.1%) and an acceptable implementation of practices toward
prevention reproduction of mosquitoes (58.5%) and a poor implementation of
practices to prevent mosquito bites (38.3%). Conclusions: The findings revealed high
acceptable knowledge about MBDs and a high favorable attitude regarding to prevent
them, but also revealed a scarce implementation of prevention practices. The
generalized storage of water on non-covered barrels because the inconsistent water
supplies, can be source of proliferation of mosquitoes and therefore increases the risk
of transmission of MBDs. High population density of the community can magnify
this risk. It is necessary to enhance education to promote better implementation of
practices using the most common media together with the local health workers.