What is it about?
Recycling of used tires, into ovillantas, combined with community participation seems to reduce the incidence of viral transmissions by this vector. The 'protection' is restricted to the area where the ovillantas are maintained and the eggs and larvae collected and continuously destroyed.
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Why is it important?
Viral transmission by the Aedes mosquitoes has spread into the Americas causing a lot of morbidity and illness. The transmission of Zika, dengue and chikungunya virus can be detrimental to the economy of the family in vulnerable communities. Thus, a cheap, easily accessible and easy to maintain vector control system is always welcomed in a community. Empowering the same community with the knowledge on vector control and the ovillantas has been demonstrated in the jungle of Guatemala, producing the initial positive results on local reduction of viral transmission.
Perspectives
This are the initial crude results published recently on how empowering people with some tools can benefit themselves and help the huge effort of Health agencies. More work is planned to scientifically substantiate the effect of this approach. The birth of the ovillanta, made of recycled tires, has two prong benefit. First, one eliminated old tires which contribute to the mosquito production and second, we place them strategically on site for destruction of the second generation of mosquitoes in a very affordable manner. Communities are gathering around the self empowering-approach of vector control, helping local Health units to reduce the risks of infection by virus transmitted by the mosquitoes.
Dr Gérard Ulíbarri
Laurentian University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Control of Aedes aegypti in a remote Guatemalan community vulnerable to dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus: Prospective evaluation of an integrated intervention of web-based health worker training in vector control, low-cost ecological ovillantas, and ..., F1000Research, April 2016, Faculty of 1000, Ltd.,
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.8461.1.
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