Knowledge and practice of indoor residual spray with dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane in the prevention and control of malaria in the endemic zone of rural area of west Tripura district, North East India: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization recommends indoor residual spray (IRS) including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), as a malaria vector control measure. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to assess the knowledge and practice of IRS with DDT in rural area of the West Tripura district. METHODOLOGY: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in rural area of West Tripura District during the period of June to July 2019. Two hundred adult participants were interviewed from randomly selected families using multistage simple random sampling technique using a predesigned, pretested interview schedule. Data were analyzed using Microsoft excel 2007 and the Epi-info version 6.0 (CDC, Atlanta, Georgia, USA). RESULTS: More than 43% of the families knew that DDT spray was for malaria prevention and control measures. Reasons for not allowing DDT spray were due to stains of houses (35.13%), bad odors (3.5%), unpreparedness (3.5%), uninformed (3%), and 7% other reasons. CONCLUSIONS: Practice on indoor residual spray (DDT) was below the level of coverage required for mass effect recommended by the World Health Organization. However, the population had a good knowledge of the diseases spread by the mosquitoes.