KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES REGARDING CHIKUNGUNYA AMONG COMMUNITY MEMBERS IN URBAN AREAKhalid Haroon Fadul, Maha Hamad Ali, Hatim Rahamtalla Mohamed, Mazahir E. Abdallah, Mohammed Osman Elamin, Hatim Abdullah Natto and Ahmed A. OsmanAbstract Chickungunya is a serious and increasing public health problem in tropical and subtropical regions of theworld. It is caused by a group A virus and transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Among thesigns and symptoms were sudden onset of fever headache, joint pain and swelling, inability to walk, fatigue,muscle pain, rash, nausea, chills, anorexia, lumbago, and conjunctivitis. Prevention is entirely upon takingsteps to avoid mosquito bites and eliminating of mosquito breeding sites. This is a cross-sectional descriptivestudy with the aim to study knowledge, attitude and practice of households was conducted in Kassal State,Sudan. 388 households were recruited for the study. A modified structured questionnaire targetinghouseholds was used to collect data and the collected data were analyzed by using computer softwareprogram (SPSS). The results were presented in text, tables and figures. Although, 49.2% and 93% of theparticipants had knowledge concerning modes of transmissions and causative factors, respectively, 61.45and 50.8% had poor or lack knowledge concerning symptoms and signs and method of prevention ofchickungunya, respectively. 69.6% and 68.1% of the participants had favorable attitudes towards perceivingthe severity of chickungunya and dealing with the infected person, respectively. The majority (84.7%) ofthe participants use mosquitoes net as method of prevention and more than half (53.2%) of the participantswere participating in chickungunya prevention program. Household had lack of in-depth knowledge aboutChickungunya causal factors and methods of prevention. Therefore health education and communityawareness can play a role for the control of Chickungunya epidemic. |