Health seeking behavior among the fever cases during an outbreak of malaria in Assam
Borah, P.K.; Dutta, P.; Phukan, A.C.; Mahanta, J.
Journal of Human Ecology 15(3): 195-197
2004
ISSN/ISBN: 0970-9274 DOI: 10.1080/09709274.2004.11905692Document Number: 264178
During outbreak of diseases like malaria people have different perspective about health seeking behavior at community level due to increased consciousness and panic. A study was conducted among acute febrile patients attending the hospital to have an insight into knowledge and health seeking behavior of the subjects during an out break situation in Nagaon district of Assam with predesigned questionnaire and concurrent clinical and blood examination. A major fraction (95.7%) of the study subjects became aware about the occurrence of malaria. Out of them, 63.0% and 32.6% considered fever and fever with chill respectively as malaria symptoms. However, most of them did not know about the cause and transmission of the disease. About 60.3% of patients directly came to the public health facility, seeking remedy, 16.3% treated themselves by taking drugs from local pharmacy and 23.4% sought treatment from UVLP (untrained village level practitioner) and traditional practitioners. The overall SPR (slide positive rate) was 33.2% with higher percentage noticed in the age group of 10-15 years. Female subjects and tea garden workers community followed by tribal population had more SPR. Almost equal proportion of malaria positive cases (slide positive) visited the public health facility (32.4%) and other mode of health facility (34.3%) for their remedy. The study indicated the necessity of health education to the community regarding the transmission, preventive measures for malaria and about the symptom identification and self-reporting to the public health facility.