Role of Public Health Campaigns in Controlling Dengue Fever in Pakistan: A Case Study of Faisalabad

Abstract

Dengue fever is still among the topical issues of the vector-borne public health in Pakistan, and the city of Faisalabad turns out to be a new epicenter of outbreaks. This paper explores the impact of community based dengue fever control in Faisalabad and discusses the role played by dengue fever awareness campaigns, community mobilization efforts, vector control programs and government lead interventions on disease control between 2015 and 2024. They were able to use a quantitative survey approach to sample 250 respondents who represented different residential and demographic backgrounds in Faisalabad. Measured knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) regarding dengue prevention and the exposure and perceived effectiveness of public health campaigns in the respondents was measured by using structured questionnaires. Preventive health behaviors were associated with campaign exposure through the use of descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, chi-square tests, and regression analysis. Results show that those communities who were exposed to sustained and multi-channel health campaigns had higher knowledge levels regarding dengue transmission, more uptake of the practices of controlling vectors including eradication of stagnant water and the use of mosquito nets, and also improved health-seeking behavior. But major gaps still exist in rural and peri urban regions where campaign coverage is still paltry. The research concludes that a significant role of public health campaigns in the control of dengue has been established in Faisalabad even though its effect has been limited by inconsistencies in implementations, lack of follow-up and engagement. Some suggestions are made to improve campaign design, inter-agency responses, and grassroots health communications to improve dengue control in Pakistan.