Chapters authored
Insecticide-Treated House Screens to Reduce Infestations of Dengue Vectors
The public health importance of the endophilic mosquito Aedes aegypti increased dramatically in the recent decade, because it is the vector of dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever. The use of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) fixed on doors and windows, as insecticide-treated screening (ITS), is one innovative approach recently evaluated for Aedes control in South Mexico. From 2009 to 2014, cluster-randomised controlled trials were conducted in Acapulco and Merida. Intervention clusters received Aedes-proof houses (‘Casas a prueba de Aedes’) with ITS and were followed up during 2 years. Overall, results showed significant and sustained reductions on indoor adult vector densities in the treated clusters with ITS after 2 years: ca. 50% on the presence (OR ≤ 0.62, P < 0.05) and abundance (IRR ≤ 0.58, P < 0.05). ITS on doors and windows are ‘user-friendly’ tool, with high levels of acceptance, requiring little additional work or behavioural change by householders. Factors that favoured these interventions were (a) house construction, (b) high coverage achieved due to the excellent acceptance by the community and (c) collaboration of the vector control services; and only some operational complaints relating to screen fragility and the installation process. ITS is a housing improvement that should be part of the current paradigms for urban vector-borne disease control.
Part of the book: Dengue
An Integrated Intervention Model for the Prevention of Zika and Other Aedes-Borne Diseases in Women and their Families in Mexico
We describe and discuss the rationale, design and current implementation of a model for an integrated intervention for the primary and secondary prevention of Zika and other Aedes-borne diseases and sexually transmitted infections that impact reproductive health, pregnancy and perinatal life stages in women and their families in Merida, Mexico. The intervention includes enhanced surveillance of pregnant women, implementation of communication strategies to promote good practices to prevent disease transmission, determination of the frequency of structural anomalies detected prenatally in the foetus, umbilical cord and placenta of pregnancies diagnosed with ZIK infection, detection of ZIKV and other arboviruses/viruses in products of abortion, in-utero and early newborn, provision of Aedes aegypti-proof houses? (protecting homes with door/window screens with insecticide to prevent the access of mosquitoes), mosquito repellents, larvicides and education/promotion of best practices for the prevention of infection with dengue (DENV), chikungunya (CHIKV) and Zika (ZIKV) and an anthropological studies on sociocultural factors of pregnant women associated with ZIKV. This intervention is being developed in a population of 10,000 people of the city of Merida and with the participation of a multidisciplinary group of public health professionals in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Government of Yucatan.
Part of the book: Current Topics in Zika