Webinar: community-based interventions to control vector-borne diseases

On January 26th, 2023, MediLabSecure medical entomology and public health experts held jointly a webinar on "Community-Based Interventions to Control Vector-Borne Diseases" which aimed to present the importance of mobilizing communities to enhance vector-borne disease control.

The three-hours webinar started with an overview of the third phase of the MediLabSecure project which has been launched in July 2022. Then, Dr Mauricio Fuentes and Dr Valéry Ridde shared the different strategies implemented in Columbia and Burkina Faso to engage with local communities and increase their participation in vector-borne disease control efforts. Key messages in both cases were the same, sustainable and effective community-based interventions should consider different critical elements as resources, political context, community and stakeholder participation, multi-sectoral involvement and collaboration.

In the second part of the webinar, Public Health experts from the ISS (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) presented the preliminary results of the on-line survey completed by members of the MediLabSecure network to explore to what extent community-based systems for vector-borne diseases (VBDs) prevention and preparedness are implemented within the project and if they are based on multisectoral collaboration. An integrative exercise, and a discussion based on the experience of Jordan and Armenia followed.

The sharing of concrete field actions during the webinar highlighted the importance of multisectoral approaches, the consideration of the local context and the need to include the communities to implement effective and long-term vector control actions.