Community Involvment in a Dengue Prevention Project in Marilia, Sao Paulo State, Brazil

Describes a dengue prevention program in one neighborhood of Marilia, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, that made the tires, cans, & bottles where mosquitoes breed its focus, & conducted an "ethnography of refuse," including local classification of materials as useful or disposable in preparation for an educational intervention. The initial assumption that patterns of refuse disposal are an individual choice, influenced by relatively static cultural definitions of what constitutes refuse, gave way over the course of the project to a new, more dynamic & contextualized view, allowing for the influence of various stakeholders, including municipal & informal refuse collectors, on patterns of refuse management. The end result was the establishment of a system of selective refuse collection with participation of both householders & informal refuse collectors. Implications of findings for programs to control other emerging infectious diseases are discussed. 17 References. Adapted from the source document.