European Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 1450-2267 Vol. 57 No 1 October, 2018, pp.70-79 http://www.europeanjournalofsocialsciences.com/ Knowledge about Chikungunya: A Case with Private University Students’ of Dhaka, Bangladesh Sohela Mustari Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, Bangladesh Abstract Fever, due to infected Aedesaegypti and Aedesalbopictusmosquitos’ causes’ a serious and emerging public health problem in and around the urban and suburban areas of Bangladesh. Out of many viruses, Chikungunya virus is the most rapidly spreading virus and important for medical health perspectives. With the similar symptoms of Chikungunya, people of urban and suburban areas of Bangladesh are experiencing Dengue virus from last few years. Although Bangladesh experienced few Chikungunya cases in earlier years, butfor the first time in 2017, Chikungunya spread in Bangladesh like epidemic which catches the concern of physicians, researchers and policy makers. This study thus tries to explore the level of knowledge and understanding about Chikungunya virus of private university students of Bangladesh. Both qualitative and quantitative approach is used for this research. A total of 400 samples were interviewed by using convenient sampling procedure to know their knowledge about Chikungunya virus. Similarly, for qualitative data a total of 15 in- depth interviews were conducted with the students. Both experienced and non-experienced students with Chikungunya virus participated in the research.The result shows that 80.6% of the respondents knowChikungunya is a viral disease. The result also shows that 71.4% of the respondents know Chikungunya spreads to humans by the bite of an infected mosquito. However, most of them are not sure about the difference in symptoms of dengue, Chikungunya and other viral fever. So in this research it is suggested to disseminate proper information about Chikungunya through mass media. Keywords: Chikungunya, Bangladesh, private university, qualitative, quantitative, mass media Introduction The bite of infected female Aedesaegypti and Aedesalbopictus, mosquitoes transmits a virus to human body which causes high fever with joint pain. This viral fever is primarily known as Chikungunya. These mosquitos usually bite in early morning and late afternoon. These mosquitoes are typically available in and around the urban and suburban areas(Burt et al., 2017). “Chikungunya virus continues to cause large epidemics worldwide, with no specific treatment or vaccine currently available to prevent infection”(Burt et al., 2017). Transmitted from Aedesspp mosquitoes, Chikungunya virus has recently outbreaks in the Indian Ocean and Indian subcontinent. This virus was first identified in Tanzania in 1953 and then spread other African and Asian countries (Mavalankar et al., 2008). “The name chikungunya is derived from a local language of Tanzania meaning "that which bends up" or "stooped walk" because of the incapacitating arthralgia caused by the disease” (Hassan et al. 2014).The first outbreak in Chikungunya occurred in Kenya in 2004 and after that a number of outbreaks occurred throughout the world. Although industrialized and developed 70 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 57, Issue 1 October (2018) countries are less affected in Chikungunya Virus but it does not mean that they are free from Chikungunya. However,this virus out-breaks easily in a country where population density is higher(Rezza et al.2007; Bedoya-Arias et al; 2015). This disease has a possibility to be misunderstood that the carrier and symptoms of both Chikungunya and Dengue are same. Assessing knowledge and perception of young generation about epidemiology, symptoms and transmission of Chikungunya virus from different private universities of Dhaka, Bangladesh would be highly relevant, particularly because no information was managed with the young and future generation of Bangladesh. A cross-sectional, explorative study was made with the students of different private universities of Bangladesh. The universities were chosen randomly from the total list of private universities in Bangladesh. A total number of 400 samples were chosen conveniently who gave their consent to answer the provided questionnaire. The students with experience of Chikungunya virus and without experience of Chikungunya virus participated in the interview. A structured questionnaire was used. Students, who agreed to be part of the research, filled out a questionnaire about basic knowledge of the students about the epidemiology, symptoms and prevention of disease. Basic statistics using SPSS v.19 were used to present the statistical data. To incorporate quantitative data with qualitative data, a total fifteen (15) in-depth interviews were conducted as well. In this part, the respondents were from the same population, however; these respondents may join in survey or not, does not considered. In this qualitative part, respondents’ basic knowledge about the epidemiology, symptoms and prevention of disease were collected. These collected data was analyzed with narrative method with traditional method. Literature Review Chikungunya virus has become one of the emerging public health concerns for Bangladesh. Though Bangladesh is in endemic zone, Chikungunya supposed not be a common disease in Bangladesh (Hassan et al. 2014). However after the Dengue, in 2017 Chikungunya also demands much attention for its outbreak nature. The first outbreak of Chikungunya feverwas reported as “Dhaka fever” in 1964(Mortayez et al., 1997). Later on, Bangladesh witnessed Chikungunya outbreak in 2008 and from then report of Chikungunya comes in regular basis (Hassan et al. 2014). However in 2017 it came as an epidemic nature.In Bangladesh, Chikungunya outbreaks reported mostly in urban based areas. A recent research claimed that Bangladeshi adult women, who stay most of their day time in their own house, experienced the highest attacks with Chikungunya virus(Khatun et al, 2015). Sometimes Chikungunya comes with no symptom. Person cannot make difference Chikungunya fever from other fever. Similarly, the symptoms of Chikungunya sometimes overlap with Dengue like fever and pain. However, in general, Chikungunya comes with high fever along with headache, fatigue nausea, vomiting, rash and joint pain. It is also not uncommon that patients may have gastrological problem. Physicians claimed that there are no anti-viral drugs for Chikungunya. Physicians usually provide to the patient of Chikugunya paracetamoles and avoid Aspirin group medicine. For general cases, physicians recommend staying in house and if necessary to reduce the joint pain, patient can take the therapy. Finally according to the physicians of Bangladesh, though Chikungunya causes serious sufferings but there is nothing to be worried for death. As there is no vaccine for this disease, it is recommended to spread knowledge and increase awareness among the citizens (Azad, 2013). So far of the knowledge of the current researcher, there is no paper concerning on knowledge of Bangladeshi on Chikungunya in general, and knowledge of private university students in specific. However, it is notified that few related works by international researchers of other countries have been done. A research in a coastal district of Karnataka state of India in 2008 claimed that 70% respondents of their research knew that Chikungunya spreads through the bites of mosquito but only 20% of them were knowledgeable that this spreads from Aedes mosquitoes (Majra& Acharya, 2011). The same study also claimed that people who had knowledge about the symptoms and preventive of the disease 71 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 57, Issue 1 October (2018) are less likely to be affected by chikungunya (Majra & Acharya, 2011). In a systematic review paper, it is claimed that Knowledge and perception of Chikungunya among the public and health professions varies country to country and those countries which have experience of Chikungunya are more knowledgeable than the others (Corrin et al., 2017). Finally getting the gap in existing literatures, this article intends to know the level of knowledge of the private university students about Chikungunya virus, symptoms and prevention of disease. Methods This section is divided into five sub-sections which are target groups, time and location of survey and in-depth interviews, sampling techniques, data collection and data analysis techniques. Target Group Only private university students of Dhaka and nearby areas, who are currently active students in both under-graduate and post graduate levels, are considered as the target group for this study. Time and Location of Survey and in-Depth Interviews The severity of outbreaks of Chikungunya was April 1, 2017, to Sept 7, 2017 (Kabir et al; 2017). This research thus, started to work after epidemic reduced its severity from September 2017 . A survey was conducted with the private university students from September 2017 to December 2017. Similarly, during the same time in-depth interviews were carried out with the same target groups. Sampling Techniques A comprehensive list of the Private universities was collected. From this list name of Private universities was selected using simple random sampling (SRS) techniques. A total 17 private universities name were taken randomly; the universities are: North south University, BRAC University, East West University, Southeast University, Daffodil University, American International University Bangladesh (AIUB),