Dengue Zero

Posted by Daniel on January 19, 2010, 5:48 pm, in reply to "Dengue"
187.146.70.150

Dengue 0 - Hi Thomas, 80% is an incredibly high number, I had no idea. What is happening here in La Manzanilla is no different than what is happening globally on many levels, plain and simple apathy. People (including myself) are perfectly willing to have 80% of the town suffer Dengue and to accept the financial impact of less people on vacation and lost time at work. The problem is put it in the hands of the health officials who come around with their forms and packets of mosquito stuff and spray now and then. Quite obviously that is not working so its safe to say we don't need more of the same but more of something new. I am one who wants to see La Manzanilla change as little as possible. But there are types of change which are desired, there is much to be learned in the area of health and prevention. My personal opinion is to do as much as we as a community can to change the mosquito situation from what it is now to as few mosquito’s as possible. We need a new vision, a goal as a community to make La Manzanilla completely free of Dengue, a "Dengue Zero" mindset. I have read time and time again, both in articles and on this message board that what does work is prevention, this may be a good place to start. This has to be a community project or it will never work, communication will be as always very important. We need to have the process of Zero Dengue broken down into bite size pieces and find persons who are willing to work on that bite size piece. Here is a rough outline that may help as a start. 1) Assemble prevention information. Action 1a) Do some research on what others in La Manzanilla, locally and globally are doing on the community level regarding prevention. How do we get the entire community involved? 1b) Assemble that information into web pages. 1c) Make an ongoing list of preventions that may or may not be implemented. 1d) Create a Dengue message board (or use the LM.info message board) and create a sub section where those who are acting on a specific part of the overall plan can interact with each other about that specific part. 2) Use mosquito netting over every bed for every home owners and every rental. Action - 2a) Contact locals and let them know what is needed. Find a way to buy mosquito netting and or already made nets in bulk to get a discount rate. 2b) Sell it to the residents of La Manzanilla at cost. 2c) Donate mosquito netting for those who can't afford them. 2d) Provide assistance for those who can't put them up on their own. 3) Screens on every home. Action - 3a) Contact locals and let them know what is needed. Find a way to buy screen in bulk to get a discount rate. 3b) Sell it to the residents of La Manzanilla at cost. 3c) Donate screens for those who can't afford them. 3d) Provide assistance for those who can't put them up on their own. 4) Check for places mosquitoes can breed Action - 4a) Make a list of places to check for standing water (there are many people don't usually think of). The list could include information encouraging everyone to seek and find and eliminate every single place mosquitoes can breed, information on mosquitoes in general, about the Zero Dengue goal, and inviting them to join in. 4b) translate that list to Spanish and get it printed. 4c) Get a copy to every house hold. 4c) Get teams to go our in the same way that they look for lost persons and cover the entire town (not just houses) from the highway to the Tamarindo gate searching for breeding places, standing water. This is the same thing that the government is currently doing but they are missing places. 5) Increase Natural predators of mosquito's Action 5a) Assemble information on natural predators of mosquitoes. 5b) Make places for birds and bats to breed (they eat mosquitoes) 5c) Gather info why there appears to be less swallows and dragon flies this year. 6) Stop relying on government to fix the problem, they don't have the resources or the motivation that the locals should have. 7) Translate everything English into Spanish and Spanish to English, this is a community problem and will be solved when each of us becomes involved.

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