ABSTRACT
Fever is a frequent infant symptom it is among the primary causes of infants morbidity in developing countries. ln Tunisia, fever constitutes a frequent motive for ambulatory consultation and hospitalization Knowledge and practices of mother to face fever conditioning party its issue. In this regard this survey aims at studying knowledge; attitudes and practices of mother facing fever in order to set up educational strategy adapted to the concerned population it is a descriptive cross study of 491 mothers who have consulted the centres of primary healthcare and centres of maternal and infantile protection of 9 delegations in the district of Monastir from 1[st] July up to 15 September 2006. Results have demonstrated that the average age of mothers was 28,5 +/- 5 years with a medium level c instruction and socio-professional. Among the questioned mothers, 80% define fever at a temperature of 38°C and 97.35% know at list one sign of gravity [convulsion is recognized by 56.2% of mothers]. 82.7% know how to measure the rectal temperature, 91.6% use physical means and 88.2% resort substances available at home to reduce temperature 34.3% of mothers have recourse to doctor temperature is diminished Principals determining knowledge and practices of mothers are the instruction and profession of the parents [p<0.01], the number of lived infants and health care education [p<0.05], We can deduce from the study that the knowledge of mothers is quite good. However many efforts are still required to promote the saint practices of mothers