KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF RESIDENTS ABOUT MALARIA IN SOUTHEAST IRAN (1994)

A survey was undertaken between November 1994 and January 1995 to asse ss the knowledge and practice with respect to malaria of 1946 randomly selected households in endemic urban and rural areas of Hormozgan, Ke rman and Sistan and Baluchistan Provinces, southeast Iran. Knowledge o f inhabitants was relatively poor in the study area despite activities to control the disease there for more than 35 years. Mean scores of t he knowledge of the residents of the villages having access to primary health care (PHC) services was significantly lower than that under th e services of the mobile teams which may reflect the insignificant att ention which has been devoted to health education by PHC workers with respect to malaria and malaria control. An educational campaign direct ed at increasing the knowledge should result in greater acceptance of residents of personal protection methods and vector control and drug t reatment programmes. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.