Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (Jan 2019)

Knowledge and attitude regarding Zika virus disease among junior residents of a tertiary care hospital in Delhi, India

  • Anika Sulania,
  • Anita Khokhar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/jmgims.jmgims_46_17
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 24, no. 1
pp. 39 – 43

Abstract

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Introduction: Zika virus disease (ZVD) is a mosquito-borne arbovirus infection caused by Zika virus, a Flavivirus from the Flaviviridae family spread via a type of mosquito called Aedes mosquito, namely Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus which is also responsible for spreading diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever. Outbreaks of ZVD have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study with complete enumeration was carried out among non-PG junior residents (JRs) of a tertiary care hospital of Delhi. Those who agreed to fill the questionnaire were included in the study after written consent. A self-administered, pretested, semistructured questionnaire, consisted of three sections, is used. Results: 125 (72.7%) participants had heard about ZVD, and almost 61% of participants believed A. aegypti to be the vector for transmission of ZVD. More than 80% of participants believed that ZVD outbreak is possible in India. The various reasons they quoted for the outbreak were environmental factors (50%), travel and immigration (16.3%), unawareness and unpreparedness (11.5%), host factors (9.6%), agent factors (6.4%), and easy transmission (4.7%). Approximately 90% of the study participants who have heard of ZVD knew that travel to the endemic area should be postponed. Participants with high level of knowledge according to knowledge score think that ZVD outbreak is possible in India in the future and they tried to gain more knowledge about ZVD. The results were found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the low knowledge among JR area is worrisome and a great deal of importance needs to be paid because health-care providers should be able to identify and screen potential patients to prevent further progression of this disease.

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