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Current Prevalence of Malaria Knowledge and Practices among Residents of a Rural Community in South India

Introduction: Malaria is a major public health problem in India. The prevention of Malaria is mainly dependenton knowledge and beliefs of people.The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030in India insists to eliminate malaria in India and for this to achieve the current malaria awareness on causesand protection in the region where malaria was a major problem about 7 years back is very important. In thisbackground this study was undertaken to know the current Knowledge of Malaria in this area.Objectives: To know the knowledge and practices of Malaria which was problem in the area about 7 yearsback.Methodology: Its a Cross-sectional study conducted in a rural community.Since the proportions of knowledgeand practices regarding malaria transmission in this setting was unknown, a 50% proportion was assumedto ensure the maximum sample size.The total number of houses visited was 110 to achieve the sample sizeof 384. The information of malaria with respect to Socio-demographic, knowledge and practices has beencollected from the adult respondent (aged >18 years) of the households in the villages of field practice areaof the medical college. Data was collected by semistructred questionnaire method. Frequencies, proportionsand chi-square test are the test of significance.Results: Among the 384 subjects interviewed 73% (i.e. 280) knew about malaria and were assessed forKnowledge and practices regarding malaria. About 32.8% (i.e. 126) said that malaria is a communicabledisease, Majority 74.7% (i.e. 287) said that malaria is transmitted from mosquito bite. About 19% (i.e. 72)were not aware regarding mode of transmission of malaria. About 74.7% (i.e. 287) respondents informedthat mosquito nets were used in the night to protect from mosquito bites.Conclusions: The study revealed that knowledge and practices about malaria was satisfactory and therewas varied perception about causes, spread of disease, symptoms and protection from mosquitoes. Healthpersonnel and medical students were the major source of knowledge in this the population. Since the malariais not a problem from the past 5 years, but still the overall awareness regarding malaria was good in this area.