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Conference Summary
Innovative Approaches to Infectious
Disease Prevention in Women1
Marian McDonald,*
Joyce Hunter,† Dazon Dixon Diallo,‡ Monique Petrofsky,* and Hilda Seda*
*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; †New
York State Psychiatric Institute, New York City, New York, USA; ‡SisterLove,
Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Suggested
citation for this article
Preventing infectious diseases among women requires innovative and empowering
community-based strategies. Strategies that involve women in the design,
staffing, implementation, and evaluation of programs can result in greater
effectiveness and empowerment and reduction of infectious disease transmission.
Community
Capacity Building
Community capacity building is the process of enhancing a community's
ability to respond to challenges and opportunities and to address its
needs through the development of leaders, skills, knowledge, and resources.
It is essential to community-based infectious disease prevention. SisterLove
is a women's organization dedicated to eradicating the effects of HIV/AIDS
and other reproductive health challenges on women and their families through
education, prevention, support, and human rights advocacy in the United
States and around the world. The work at SisterLove focuses on women and
HIV through health education, advocacy, housing, and support services;
the work is performed through grassroots, community-based organizations.
SisterLove is involved in international programs, such as the Thembuhlelo
HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Project in South Africa, and bridge leadership,
such as the Women's HIV/AIDS Resources Project. SisterLove uses grassroots,
community-based organizations as primary agents because these places are
where people seek services. Three key elements to the success of this
program are the following: the programs must be inclusive of the communities
in which they are working, staff members must relate to the people in
the communities, and staff members must not set up false expectations
and must deliver on promises.
Guinea Worm
Eradication Program
The Guinea worm eradication program in Ghana has partnered with the Ghana
Red Cross women's clubs to reduce transmission of Guinea worm. The partnership
involved teaching village-based women volunteers how Guinea worm is transmitted
and how to prevent transmission. Red Cross women volunteers educate communities
on methods to prevent transmission.
Traditionally, Guinea worm eradication efforts worked primarily with
male volunteers, which presented a variety of challenges because men are
frequently required to travel outside the village and are not responsible
for gathering water. Since women are primarily responsible for water gathering
and using the water for household consumption, providing ownership in
the program was important for the success of the project. By engaging
women volunteers, village women were convinced to use the filters and
to not contaminate the water.
Responsibilities of the women volunteers include daily surveillance by
finding, identifying, and reporting all new cases; case containment by
ensuring that infected persons do not contaminate water sources; and distributing,
checking, and replacing specifically manufactured filters that filter
out the copepods. Women volunteers also assisted in identifying water
resources used by the community for larvicidal treatment. Through this
program, cases of Guinea worm have decreased dramatically.
Role of
Women in Dengue Prevention
Studies in Puerto Rico and elsewhere in Latin America have documented
the role of women in preventing dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever. When
properly educated and motivated, many women have contributed to the development
and promotion of educational interventions that are used to control or
eliminate the mosquito vector of dengue. After receiving training to develop
communication, education, and community organizational skills, a group
of mothers of children enrolled in the Head Start program conducted four
dengue prevention activities in their community. Their intervention resulted
in higher levels of knowledge about dengue when compared to a control
community. This study demonstrated that a small group of motivated women
can generate a good response in their community. For greater effect and
to increase the number of people exposed to educational messages, more
long-term prevention activities need to be promoted in the community.
1The following comments were made in presentations
by the above authors at the International Conference on Women and Infectious
Disease.
Suggested citation
for this article:
McDonald M, Hunter
J, Diallo DD, Petrofsky M, Seda H. Innovative approaches to infectious
disease prevention in women [conference summary]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial
on the Internet]. 2004 Nov [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no11/04-0622_07.htm
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