Awareness and practices regarding malaria of catchment population of a primary health centre in Delhi.

Malaria is a major public health problem in India. IEC activities have been an important activity of National Anti Malaria Programme. The present study was undertaken with the objective to assess awareness and practices regarding malaria among patients attending malaria clinic. Literacy status was low among the respondents. About 57% of respondents were aware of the cause of malaria as parasite or mosquito and awareness increased with the literacy status (49.4% in illiterate to 85.4% in high school and above literate). More than half (51.0%) of the respondents attributed high fever with chills and rigor as the most important symptom of malaria, but some of the respondents also mentioned only high fever (18.9%) or high fever with diarrhea (21.2%) as main symptom of malaria. Majority of the respondents knew that mosquito bred in water (62.9%) and mosquito breeding could be prevented (56.6%), knowledge significantly better among literate than illiterates. The present study showed that the awareness and practices about the cause and prevention of malaria were just fair among the patients attending the Malaria Clinic of a Primary Health Centre of Delhi and were dependent upon the literacy status of the study population. Poor response towards practising preventive measures against mosquito bites as approx. one third were not practising any method could be due to poor awareness about malaria preventive measures.