Community Involvement in a Dengue Prevention Project in Marília, São Paulo State, Brazil

Abstract

A community development approach to dengue seeks to overcome the low priority accorded dengue prevention by improving basic services such as refuse collection and water supply. Reported in this article is a successful community mobilization campaign in the city of Marflia in Sao Paulo State Brazil. Since this city has a high level of basic services and severe forms of dengue have not occurred initial statements that dengue is a significant public health problem had little credibility. Community meetings and educational campaigns focused on dumping of refuse and its uptake by informal collectors. The initial assumption was that patterns of refuse disposal were a matter of individual choice influenced by relatively static cultural definitions. This view was soon replaced by a more dynamic contextual view allowing for the influence of the various stakeholders. Through consultation with residents of the project area municipal refuse collectors and informal refuse collectors a plan emerged to clean up vacant lots incorporate informal collectors into a recycling scheme and initiate a dialogue between municipal authorities and refuse collectors to improve services.