Zika knowledge and preventive practices among reproductive-age women from Lambayeque, Peru

Objective: To identify the knowledge and preventive practices on Zika among reproductive-age women in Lambayeque, Peru. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in three districts of Lambayeque, Peru. A representative sample of the reproductive-age women was obtained for each district by means of a multi-stage, stratified, conglomerate based sampling method. We applied a modified version of the World Health Organization (WHO) Questionnaire about Zika. The statistical package STATA v13.0 was used for the analysis. Results: We surveyed 388 reproductive-age women. The 88.4% recognized the mosquito as the main transmitting agent and more than 50% recognized fever, headache and arthralgia as the main symptoms. Similarly, the practices significantly more frequent were going to their antenatal-care and check-ups, the household use of temephos (Abate), the use of clothes that cover most of the body and the washing and covering the water containers. Conclusions: Although there is adequate knowledge, incorrect ideas still persist and more than half of the surveyed population reported not feeling sufficiently informed. Preventive practices, in general terms, are found in acceptable compliance percentages, but they should still be improved.