title: [Popular notions regarding "dengue" and "rompehuesos", 2 models of the disease in Colombia].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To deliver, through children, educational messages to families in Neiva, the capital city of the department of Huila, in Colombia.
  
  
  METHODS
  An educational project was developed to include, in schoolchildren's natural sciences and environmental education curriculum, basic education on dengue, its vector, and its control. Through surveys and Likert scales, the knowledge and attitudes in the schoolchildren's homes were determined. This was complemented with open-ended interviews that reflected cultural aspects in the area of health and how dengue disease is a part of people's lives. Before and after the intervention, larval infestation indices were determined for the schoolchildren's homes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A cultural pattern was found for the disease that differentiated between rompehuesos (breakbone fever) and "dengue". Rompehuesos corresponds, in popular terms, to classical dengue, a disease that can be dealt with using family and community resources. Institutional medicine, by means of its health agencies and health workers, as well as the communications media, has managed to superimpose another model: that which is associated with dengue hemorrhagic fever.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Alternatives are considered for prevention efforts that would be sufficient for the conditions in which the vector's cycle occurs in Neiva. Also presented are the community's disease model and the survey results. Together, these elements can guide the formulation and development of educational efforts.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Surcolombiana, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud. Colombia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fajardo
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Monje
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lozano
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Realpe
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Hernández
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003105:Colombia; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003715:Dengue; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans