A longitudinal study on the association between water storage practices and dengue indices among rural households of Chengalpattu district, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: The abundance of Aedes mosquitoes which transmits dengue fever fluctuates with unusual rainfall pattern and water storage practices, as it breeds well in artificial collections of water in and around the houses so vector control is the only way to break the chain of disease transmission. This study aims to find out the association between water storage practices and mosquito larval indices.Methods: This was a longitudinal study conducted among 121 households in the rural field practice area of SRM Medical College and Research Centre using a pretested, semi-structured questionnaire along with visual inspection of households for water collection and larval breeding.Results: Total study population in the 121 households was 484 which includes 247 (51%) males and 237 (49%) females. Majority of the study population were illiterates 23.7% or have education upto high school 20.8%, doing semi-skilled/unskilled work 32% belonging to a nuclear family 69.4%. More than half of the households were living in pucca house 50.4% and belongs to class-II socio-economic status 46.3%. Water scarcity and water storage were reported mostly in months between March to June which was significantly associated with presence of larva in the corresponding months (p<0.001).Conclusions: Water storage practices due to water scarcity has a significant association with the larval indices which shows that improper water storage practices can be a breeding place for mosquitoes and aid in transmission of vector borne diseases.

Spatial Distribution and Cluster Analysis of Dengue In Tamil Nadu, India 2017 – 2019

“…Districts with low rainfall, can also have more dengue cases due to improper water storage practices among public, may act as source of dengue. 20 The SOM projections classified high endemic and low endemic clusters based on the neighboring relations which is important for disease clustering. Out of 30 districts, 10 districts were extremely high endemic cluster, 9 district were very high endemic cluster (See Fig: 10).…”

Epidemiological and demographic characteristics of dengue and chikungunya infections over five years from 2014-2018, in Tamil Nadu, India

“…studies have reported that the water storage containers constituted the main breeding habitats for Aedes mosquitoes and the water storage practices are favorable to give rise to breeding of Aedes mosquitoes and are closely associated to the spread of dengue infection. [18][19][20] Thus proper community awareness can help in vector control and that can lead to break the infection cycle and curb the disease burden.…”