Awareness and practice about preventive method against mosquito bite in Gujarat

Mosquito borne diseases are major public health problems in India. Gujarat is endemic for malaria and other mosquito borne diseases. Anopheles, Aedes and Culex are commonly seen in Gujarat. Therefore the efforts have been consistently made to educate the citizens of State on danger of mosquito bites. The present study was conducted to assess the awareness and practices of mosquito bite prevention methods among households of Central Gujarat district Vadodara. Total 311 families have participated in the study from UHTC area of the Medical college. Door to door visit was conducted to visit the all households. The study was conducted in the month of June 2009, which is observed as Anti-Malaria month in Gujarat. The pilot pre-tested structure questionnaire was used to collect the data. Study respondents were 57% male and 43% female. Almost 99% had knowledge about breeding places of mosquito, but poor knowledge about biting time (20%). 71% of participants knew that mosquito bite causes malaria. 39% 0f households were using mosquito net as protection against the bite, but only 10% were using insecticide treated bed net. There is need of increasing use of insecticide treated bed nets and continuous updating of knowledge about various aspects of mosquito bite.