From Research to Intervention: Experiencing a Vector Control Project

By Lauren Hale

In Managua, Nicaragua, on October 3, 2017 we had the opportunity to learn about a community-based health care project by the Sustainable Sciences Institute (SSI). The project aims to prevent the spread of Zika, Chikungunya, and Dengue by preventing mosquito larval development in standing bodies of water, such as the large barrels of water some families have as their source of fresh water. The “brigadistas” volunteers and the “facilitadoras” that work for the SSI welcomed us with open arms, telling us about their communities, their project, and showing us how they work to reduce the mosquitoes in the neighborhoods of Managua. While the formal name for this type of project is community-based entomology surveillance, when you boil it down the heart of the project really stems from neighbors taking care of neighbors for love of the community. It is a beautiful thing to see, and perhaps not something that could work if not for the deep ties people have within their communities.

Before my experience with this community-based health care project, I felt that I had a good idea about the general importance of this project from the faculty-led research project I had completed at the OTS La Selva field station the month before. We had done research on how mosquitoes use natural standing water sources, such as bromeliads, in forested areas and non-forested residential areas. For the research, we learned about the life cycle of mosquitoes, to identify mosquito larvae, and did literature research on how mosquitoes use natural and artificial standing water sources alike and how this can lead to disease transmission in communities. I was very excited to take my scientific knowledge about mosquitoes and see first-hand how this knowledge is applied in vector control projects. The trip was everything I could have imagined and more. Rather than just learning about the logistics of vector control, I learned about how knowing the community you are working in is essential to making a project work. I had heard of this concept before in my global health studies as “cultural competency”, but my understanding of this concept has greatly deepened after witnessing and experiencing it for myself. The SSI project relies on the love people have for their community and for each other, which is not something I would initially think to rely on based on my experience in my community growing up -people were kind to each other and some neighbors knew each other, but there was not the sense of a cohesive community like there is here in these neighborhoods in Managua. Overall, I was very grateful for this opportunity to see how well scientific research can be translated to public health interventions with the right model to empower people to improve the health of their own communities, and I hope to be able to follow this example in my future career.

Lauren Hale looking at mosquito larvae under a stereoscope at the OTS La Selva Biological Station (photo credit Sarah Sampson).

 

Hannah Erb examining a barrel for mosquito larvae instructed by a SSI “facilitadora” in the neighborhood of La Quinta, Managua, in Nicaragua (photo credit Mauricio Lascano).