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Journal of Mosquito Research, 2013, Vol.3, No.7, 54
-
57
ISSN 1927-646X
http://jmr.sophiapublisher.com
54
Research Report Open Access
Community Perceptions Regarding Mosquito Borne Diseases in Some Selected
Localitities of Bankura, a Peri-Urban Area of West Bengal, India
Anupam Ghosh , Sathi Mukherjee , Tanushree Dutta , Subhasis Roy , Fatik Baran Mondal
Department of Zoology, Bankura Christian College, West Bengal, India
Corresponding author email:
anupamghosh75@yahoo.co.in;
Authors
Journal of Mosquito Research, 2013, Vol.3, No.7 doi: 10.5376/jmr.2013.03.0007
Received: 25 Feb., 2013
Accepted: 04 Mar., 2013
Published: 25 Apr., 2013
Copyright
© 2013 Ghosh et al. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Ghosh et al., 2013, Community Perceptions Regarding Mosquito Borne Diseases in Some Selected Localitities of Bankura, a Peri-Urban Area of West Bengal,
India, Journal of Mosquito Research, Vol.3, No.7 54-57 (doi: 10.5376/jmr.2013.03.0007)
Abstract
A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken covering 300 peoples in some selected peri-urban areas of
Bankura, West Bengal, India to understand the level of knowledge and perceived risk regarding mosquito-borne infectious diseases.
The general perception of the community may be helpful in designing evidence-based effective control strategies in the study area.
Present survey emphasizes the need of creating public awareness regarding the seriousness of mosquito borne diseases as effective
preventive measures.
Keywords
Mosquito; Mosquito borne diseases; Community perception; Public awareness; Effective preventive measures
Intrduction
Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are now referred as
‘Public Enemy No. 1’ by the World Health
Organization (WHO, 1996). There are more than 4
500 species of mosquitoes distributed throughout the
world under 34 genera; but mostly belongs to
Aedes
,
Anopheles
and
Culex
. They are vectors of several
public and life threatening diseases including
protozoans (malaria), viral (yellow fever, dengue fever,
chikunguniya, West Nile virus, japanese encephalitis)
or helminthic (filariasis) infections. These diseases not
only cause mortality or morbidity among the human
and cause social, cultural, environmental and
economic loss of the society.
A recent estimate suggests that 91 countries and 40%
of the world’s population are at risk of malaria. The
world-wide malaria incidence is estimated to be
300~500 million clinical cases per year. India is one of
the affected countries with millions of people die
every year due to malaria. Regarding filariasis, about
2.5 million people are exposed to the risk factors,
about 2 million are microfilariae carriers and 1.2
million disease cases occur in India. About 50 million
cases of dengue occur in India every year and 2.5
million people are under the risk of dengue viral
infection. Although not generally fatal, but in
2005~2006, 200 deaths occurred due to widespread
outbreak of chikungunya in India. Mosquito-borne
diseases result in ill-health of the community people
and death which also been emphasized in National
Health Policy (Kishor, 2006; Park, 2009).
Despites serious steps taken by chemical, biological,
mechanical or integrated vector management
programmes, the incidence of mosquito borne diseases
are ever increasing. The failure of mosquito control
operation may be due to the lack of community
participation and lack of education awareness among
them seriousness of diseases. In spite of many mass
communication
and
educational
approaches,
community participation is far below the expectation
in almost all regions of India. Community
participation is essential for the prevention and control
of an outbreak of mosquito borne diseases which in
turn depends on peoples’ general awareness,
knowledge and attitude towards the public health
diseases. Several socioeconomic studies in different
countries throughout the world indicate variations in
knowledge, perceptions and practice related to
mosquito-borne diseases (Rosenbaum et al., 1995;