RESUMO
The study was conducted on a sample of 250 tribal people of Manipur state, comprised of 125 from the urban valley population and 125 persons from rural tribals settled on hilly area at a higher altitude. The finding shows that knowledge regarding transmission of malaria, self protection and treatment seeking behaviour is still poor among the tribal communities of Manipur. However the urban tribals had better knowledge regarding diagnosis of malaria and prevention of mosquito breeding than their rural counterparts.
Assuntos
Conhecimentos, Atitudes e Prática em Saúde , Malária/etnologia , Malária/prevenção & controle , Aceitação pelo Paciente de Cuidados de Saúde/etnologia , Estudos Transversais , Feminino , Humanos , Índia/epidemiologia , Malária/diagnóstico , Masculino , Controle de Mosquitos/métodos , Controle de Mosquitos/estatística & dados numéricos , População Rural/estatística & dados numéricos , Distribuição por Sexo , População Urbana/estatística & dados numéricosRESUMO
A survey was undertaken in the east district of Imphal valley of Manipur, India, using an intradermal test with saline extract of adult Paragonimus westermani as test antigen to find out the prevalence of paragonimiasis and some of the epidemiological factors attributable to it. A total of 3,467 individuals of both sexes aged five years and above were tested. A total of 2934 persons admitted eating crabs and among them 234 were found reactive to Paragonimus antigen. The prevalence rate observed was 6.7 per cent. The proportion of positive reactors (8.0%) among the crab eaters compared to 0.1 per cent among those who did not eat crabs was highly significant (P < 0.01). The difference in the prevalence rates in different age groups and different sexes was also found to be highly significant. The habit of eating raw and or undercooked crabs had significant correlation with skin reactivity. The intradermal test was found to be a good screening test for mass surveys due to its simplicity, low cost, high sensitivity and no known untoward reaction. Four persons among the skin positive reactors presented with cough, pain in the chest, recurrent haemoptysis as major clinical manifestations. Laboratory investigations revealed Paragonimus eggs in the sputum smears, raised erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and high absolute eosinophil count in their blood. Praziquantel, the drug of choice was given at a dose of 25 mg per kg body weight 3 times a day for three consecutive days to each patient for a cure.
