Prevalence of Dengue Fever Cases, and awareness among Dengue diagnosed Patients of Urban Healthcare Facilities Of Sindh.

Abstract

Background: Dengue Fever (DF) is a lethal vector borne disease transmitted to humans through the biting of a dengue infected mosquito mainly Aedes Aegyptae. The Dengue virus (DENV) is an RNA virus and belongs to Flavivirdae family. Pakistan is among the tropical countries where DF is common and since few previous years several outbreaks reported in District Hyderabad and other parts of the country as well.

In spite of the seriousness of the issue, no information based proof exists in Urban Sindh, Pakistan which uncovers the degree of consciousness of the nation's grown-up populace with respect to dengue  fever, Objective: assess the level of awareness regarding the Dengue Fever among the cases of Dengue fever reported at three major Hospitals of Hyderabad (Rajputana Hospital, Shah Bhittai Hospital and LUMHS Hospital Hyderabad, Sindh. Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from July through December 2018 at the first and referral level healthcare facilities of public and private sector of District Hyderabad of Sindh province of Pakistan. All the dengue diagnosed cases reported during the study time were included and information collected on self-developed questionnaire consisting of total 15 questions concerning to dengue fever knowledge and then questionnaire was first pretested after that some changes made and used for the study. and informed consent was taken from all participants. The level of awareness was assessed as, right answer to questions less than five, six to ten and eleven to fifteen considered as Poor, average and good knowledge Ethical approval were also pursued from the ethical board of advance review committee of Isra University, Hyderabad Results:

50 cases were reported and diagnosed of Dengue fever and the response rate was 100%. The level of awareness was assessed through self- developed questionnaire the majority of the patients were male (62%) while female (38%), urban (40%) rural (60%), uneducated (64%) Educated (36%) among them (77.8%) Primary level and (22.2%)    Matric and the level of awareness include; poor (48%) Average (18%) good (34%).

Conclusion: The overall prevalence of dengue fever patients in secondary and tertiary health care facilities of district Hyderabad during the study duration were 50 cases. While the awareness of the patients about dengue fever & its deterrence was not satisfactory & there is significant knowledge gap with regards to dengue fever. More examinations required to build up the relationship between information, mentality and its adequacy with respect to dengue will be required in showing the effect of mindfulness.