Awareness of treatment options for dengue fever among the patients and their relatives attending a tertiary care hospital in central Kerala

Introduction: Dengue virus infection is a major cause of morbidity, mortality, and economic hardship in the tropics and subtropics. We undertook this study to see the level of awareness of symptoms and the treatment options for dengue fever. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study done in the Department of Medicine at a tertiary medical care in central Kerala during July 2017. The patients and their attendants visiting outpatient department were interviewed by trained social workers after taking a written consent. The interview was conducted based on a structured questionnaire. Distribution of various aspects of awareness and sociodemographic characteristics are presented. The association of the awareness of treatment options with sociodemographic characteristics was estimated. Results: Among the 522 subjects interviewed 509 (97.51%) had heard about dengue. Majority of them (89.59%) were aware that this is a preventable disease. Newspaper (80.94%) and television (74.85%) were the main sources of information. Most (85.85%) of them were aware of the infectious nature of the disease and that mosquitoes are the responsible vector. The most common symptoms of this disease which they were aware of were fever (64.83%), body ache (62.48%) and headache (50.68%). Almost half (48.13%) of them incorrectly expressed the need for antibiotics for this viral illness and 46.37% felt the need for platelet transfusion to hasten the recovery. Only education was associated with better awareness regarding antibiotic use (odds ratio [OR] [95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.55 [1.03–2.34]) and platelet transfusion (OR [95% CI]: 2.40 [1.17–4.91]). Conclusions: They had a reasonably good awareness of the vector that promotes dengue and its breeding sites. However, there were misconceptions regarding the treatment options.