A cross-sectional study to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding Zika virus among nursing students in a tertiary care center of central India

Introduction: Recently, the Zika virus (ZIKV) has become a major concern across the world. ZIKV can primarily spread through the bite of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Till now, ZIKV is considered an incurable infectious disease. As Zika is an emerging disease of an international concern with the ongoing speculation about a potential outbreak in India in the future, the present study was conducted with an aim to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding ZIKV among nursing students. Materials and Methods: This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 240 nursing students during 2019, and data were collected using a pretested, predesigned, standardized, and self-administered questionnaire. The ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Ethical committee before the conduct of the study. All tests were performed at 5% level of significance. Results: The present study has included 240 nursing students (228 female students and 12 male students). The most common source of information related to ZIKV was social media among 75.6% of the students and 46.7% of the participants has low knowledge regarding ZIKV. Surprisingly, about one-tenth of the participants (14.2%) made an attempt to gain more knowledge about ZIKV, and nearly one-fifth of the participants were not using any method at all (17.1%) to prevent mosquito bites. Conclusion: This study showed inadequate knowledge among nursing students which will be future health care providers about ZIKV infection. The awareness about ZIKV infection should be ensured and maintained among health care providers to face any possible emergence in the region. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Medical knowledge, Patient care, Practice-based learning, and Systems-based practice.