Behavior Change Communication for Visceral Leishmaniasis/Kala-azar in India
A paper in Global Health Science and Practice concludes that ‘Behaviour Change Communication activities are an important component of VL elimination strategies’.
Extracts below. Full text (open access) here:
www.ghspjournal.org/content/early/2018/01/31/GHSP-D-17-00087
‘Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is endemic to 54 districts in 4 states of India. Poor awareness of the disease and inappropriate health-seeking behavior are major challenges to eliminating the disease. Between February 2016 and March 2017, we implemented a behavior change communication (BCC) intervention in 33 districts of Bihar, 4 districts of Jharkhand, and 3 districts of West Bengal using a mix of channels, including group and interpersonal communication, to improve knowledge, attitudes, and practices of communities, frontline health workers, and opinion leaders…
Results: We reached an estimated 3.3 million contacts in Bihar and Jharkhand through the intervention’s BCC activities… Households in intervention villages were more aware than those in control villages that VL is spread by sand flies (68.4% vs. 7.4%, respectively; P<.001) and of IRS as an effective control measure (82.3% vs. 41.7%, respectively; P<.001)…’
