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The Contribution of Community Health Education to Sustainable Control of the Neglected Zoonotic Diseases

Effective and sustainable control of the Neglected Zoonoses (NZDs) demands a One Health approach. NZDs largely impact on individuals in low- and middle-income countries, disproportionally affecting resource poor communities with poor access to veterinary and human health services and to clean water...

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Autores principales: Butala, Caitlin, Fyfe, Jenna, Welburn, Susan Christina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8562424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34738003
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.729973
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author Butala, Caitlin
Fyfe, Jenna
Welburn, Susan Christina
author_facet Butala, Caitlin
Fyfe, Jenna
Welburn, Susan Christina
author_sort Butala, Caitlin
collection PubMed
description Effective and sustainable control of the Neglected Zoonoses (NZDs) demands a One Health approach. NZDs largely impact on individuals in low- and middle-income countries, disproportionally affecting resource poor communities with poor access to veterinary and human health services and to clean water and which are intrinsically dependent on animals for their livelihoods. Many NZDs in humans can be treated, but treatment is often complex and expensive. Similarly, while tools for prevention of transmission may exist, they are complex and expensive to adopt at the scale required to be effective. The cost of intervention for NZDs is high when compared to the public health benefits alone, but costs are easily outweighed by full cross sector analysis and when monetary and non-monetary benefits to all stakeholders are considered. Education is a key tool, often overlooked in favor of more complex solutions for the control of NZDs. Successful education programs have been targeted to children of school age for Taenia solium in Kenya, schistosomiasis in Nigeria, and soil transmitted helminths in China. A Snakes and Ladders board game, designed to teach children about schistosomiasis and encourage compliance with mass deworming programs, deployed in Nigerian schools, showed a 67% increase in knowledge of praziquantel and 65% of children who had previously rejected treatment requested the drug at school. For soil transmitted helminths in China, presentation of health information in cartoon format rather than in poster format, showed post-assessment knowledge to be 90% higher. With the rise in affordable smart-phone technology, internet access and airtime in communities in low- and middle- income countries e-education is an increasingly attractive proposition as an intervention tool for the NZDs. The Vicious Worm, a computer based educational health tool that has been designed around the prevention of Taenia Solium has shown remarkable efficacy in affected communities in which it has been deployed with participants applying the principles learned in their communities. This review explores the successes and benefits of education as a control tool for the NZDs.
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spelling pubmed-85624242021-11-03 The Contribution of Community Health Education to Sustainable Control of the Neglected Zoonotic Diseases Butala, Caitlin Fyfe, Jenna Welburn, Susan Christina Front Public Health Public Health Effective and sustainable control of the Neglected Zoonoses (NZDs) demands a One Health approach. NZDs largely impact on individuals in low- and middle-income countries, disproportionally affecting resource poor communities with poor access to veterinary and human health services and to clean water and which are intrinsically dependent on animals for their livelihoods. Many NZDs in humans can be treated, but treatment is often complex and expensive. Similarly, while tools for prevention of transmission may exist, they are complex and expensive to adopt at the scale required to be effective. The cost of intervention for NZDs is high when compared to the public health benefits alone, but costs are easily outweighed by full cross sector analysis and when monetary and non-monetary benefits to all stakeholders are considered. Education is a key tool, often overlooked in favor of more complex solutions for the control of NZDs. Successful education programs have been targeted to children of school age for Taenia solium in Kenya, schistosomiasis in Nigeria, and soil transmitted helminths in China. A Snakes and Ladders board game, designed to teach children about schistosomiasis and encourage compliance with mass deworming programs, deployed in Nigerian schools, showed a 67% increase in knowledge of praziquantel and 65% of children who had previously rejected treatment requested the drug at school. For soil transmitted helminths in China, presentation of health information in cartoon format rather than in poster format, showed post-assessment knowledge to be 90% higher. With the rise in affordable smart-phone technology, internet access and airtime in communities in low- and middle- income countries e-education is an increasingly attractive proposition as an intervention tool for the NZDs. The Vicious Worm, a computer based educational health tool that has been designed around the prevention of Taenia Solium has shown remarkable efficacy in affected communities in which it has been deployed with participants applying the principles learned in their communities. This review explores the successes and benefits of education as a control tool for the NZDs. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8562424/ /pubmed/34738003 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.729973 Text en Copyright © 2021 Butala, Fyfe and Welburn. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Butala, Caitlin
Fyfe, Jenna
Welburn, Susan Christina
The Contribution of Community Health Education to Sustainable Control of the Neglected Zoonotic Diseases
title The Contribution of Community Health Education to Sustainable Control of the Neglected Zoonotic Diseases
title_full The Contribution of Community Health Education to Sustainable Control of the Neglected Zoonotic Diseases
title_fullStr The Contribution of Community Health Education to Sustainable Control of the Neglected Zoonotic Diseases
title_full_unstemmed The Contribution of Community Health Education to Sustainable Control of the Neglected Zoonotic Diseases
title_short The Contribution of Community Health Education to Sustainable Control of the Neglected Zoonotic Diseases
title_sort contribution of community health education to sustainable control of the neglected zoonotic diseases
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8562424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34738003
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.729973
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