Socializing the Baseline Results

Primary school students in Acapulco during a discussion group on dengue-related
evidence in their community.

The results obtained during the baseline study are at the epicentre of an intervention that seeks to motivate the population to make evidence-based decisions. To do this, we have undertaken a process of household follow-up visits and community motivation activities led by previously trained facilitators and brigadistas.

The evidence concerns:

• Recent dengue infection measured by the presence of antibodies in children aged 3 to 9
• Risk factors for recent dengue virus infection
• Incidence of dengue measured in terms of infections reported by the household during the year prior to the survey
• Risk factors associated with reported dengue fever cases
• The vector’s life cycle
• Household larva rates at the site
• Main breeding-sites in and around households
• Costs incurred by the disease
• Use and costs of anti-mosquito products

Information including dengue fever cases, the costs of the disease, the use and cost of insecticides, main breeding sites and the vector’s life-cycle is socialised in information meetings and discussion groups with men, women, teachers, youth and children. A goal of these groups and meetings is to identify actions that can be undertaken within the household and community and to find strategies to communicate the information to the entire population. Among the strategies identified were house-to-house visits to explain the dengue threat and the mosquito’s life cycle and accompany householders on an inspection of water receptacles on their premises. Other activities recommended were posters displaying the mosquito’s life-cycle, producing and distributing pamphlets, dramatising dengue through plays and puppet theatre, holding information sessions in schools and dengue-specific meetings with male groups.