Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Dengue Fever: a Study among the Inhabitants of Cumilla Cantonment area of Bangladesh.

Dengue ruins a major public health challenge causing death among many people in Bangladesh. The magnitude of dengue-related illness and death has significantly increased over recent years. The study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and practices related to dengue fever. This cross-sectional type of descriptive study was conducted among a total of 250 respondents who consented to participate in this study. Respondents were included purposively from selected bushy Cumilla Cantonment area also classified as a stable dengue-prone region of Bangladesh from January 2023 to March 2023. The survey was carried out by face-to-face interviews using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. The results reveal that 81.2% of respondents were below 40 years of age group, 74.8% of respondents were married and 72.8% of respondents were in the below monthly 35000tk income group. Only 77.0% of respondents had good knowledge scores and 61.0% had positive attitudes and 75.0% had good compliance with practices. Knowledge was not significantly associated with type of residence, marital status, income group and age group (p>0.05 in every aspect). Transmission of dengue about more than two-thirds (84%) reported that the Aedes aegypti was a vector mosquito for dengue transmission and 27(10.8%) were aware of the biting time of the mosquito. Most participants (81.6%) strongly agreed that dengue is a serious illness and less than half (40.8%) reported that it could be prevented with vector control strategies. The majority (98.4%) used mosquito nets as a preventive measure, while over two-thirds (87.6%) reported that they discarded waste, containers and non-used bottles across their yards that hold water. Although the respondents had quite a positive attitude toward preventive measures regarding dengue (61.0%) and a sizeable number (39.0%) did not put proper attitude into practice. Poorly planned urbanization combined with an explosive urban population in the Cumilla Cantonment area has brought the mosquito and the human host into close proximity. The government should launch health education programs on dengue prevention to educate the community members, addressing misconceptions about their preventive measures and how they could eliminate the risk factors related to practices.