Tackling vector-borne diseases in Colombia
04/01/2013
Ecosalud ETV Colombia is tackling dengue and malaria by strengthening local and national vector-borne disease control programs in Colombia.
The Ecosalud ETV Colombia team is training vector control staff in the city of Arauca to use an ecohealth approach to health for research. As the short video A City Free of Dengue (in Spanish) explains, ecohealth research can help understand how the environment, mosquito vectors, and human activities and behaviours interact to spread or prevent dengue. Ecosalud ETV Colombia is also training doctors at the Departmental Health Institute of Northern Santander to diagnose dengue more accurately and offer better follow up care for patients. Read more (in Spanish).
Funded by IDRC and Colombia's Colciencias (department of science, technology, and innovation), Ecosalud ETV Colombia has developed outreach partnerships to cover 90% of the country in its first six months. These partnerships include national, regional, and local health authorities; representatives of civil society and communities; and universities and research centres.
Listen as Dr Juliana Quintero from Ecosalud ETV Colombia describes the work in Arauca, emphasizing the relevance of an interdisciplinary team (in Spanish).
Read about the meeting of departmental and municipal authorities and their discussion on how ecohealth approaches address pressing health problems (in Spanish).
Listen to Mario Henry Rodriguez, from Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health, explain how an ecosystem approach to human health can address complex health problems
(in Spanish).