Hans J. Overgaard, medisinsk entomolog og forsker ved REALTEK, har nok en gang klart å få et prosjekt bevilget fra Forskningsrådets program på Global helse og vaksinasjonsforskning (GLOBVAC).
Programstyret til GLOBVAC møttes i november for å beslutte om støtte. Syv av de 59 prosjektene som ble sendt inn til fristen 14 februar 2018 ble finansiert, hvorav altså et gikk til NMBU. Overgaard avsluttet i april 2018 et annet stort GLOBVAC finansiert forskerprosjekt på holdbarhet til myggnetting for malariakontroll i Tanzania. Det nye prosjektet vil arbeide med skoler for å redusere dengue og entomologiske risikofaktorer i i skolemiljøet og tettsteder i Yangon, Myanmar. Målsetningen er å studere effekten av elevstyrte intervensjoner bestående av både myggkontroll og utdannelse. Prosjektplanleggingen har allerede begynt. Prosjektet vil vare fra 2018 til 2022 og er et samarbeid mellom helsemyndigheter og universitet i Myanmar, Mahidol-Oxford Research Unit, og NGOs.
Førsteamanuensis og forsker Sheri Lee Bastien ved Institutt for folkehelsevitenskap, Fakultet for landskap og samfunn ved NMBU vil også delta i prosjektet.
The GLOBVAC program of the Research Council of Norway funds a new research project at REALTEK with NOK 20 million
Hans J. Overgaard, medical entomologist and researcher at REALTEK, has once again managed to receive a project from the Research Council's program on Global Health and Vaccination Research (GLOBVAC). The program board of GLOBVAC met in November to decide on support. Seven of the 59 projects submitted to the deadline February 14, 2018 were funded, of which one went to NMBU. Overgaard completed another large GLOBVAC funded research project in April 2018 on durability of mosquito nets for malaria control in Tanzania. The new project will work with schools in Yangon, Myanmar to reduce dengue and entomological risk factors in the school environment and communities. The aim is to study the effect of student-controlled interventions consisting of both mosquito control and education. Project planning has already begun. The project will last from 2018 to 2022. It is a collaboration between national health authorities and universities in Myanmar, Mahidol-Oxford Research Unit, and NGOs. Associate professor and researcher Sheri Lee Bastien at Department of Public Health Science, Faculty of Landscape and Society at NMBU will also participate.
School and community-based student-driven dengue vector control and monitoring in Myanmar: A cluster randomized controlled trial.
Long-term objective
Reduce dengue transmission and exposure to dengue risk factors in schools and communities in Myanmar
Project objective
Assess the impact of student-driven interventions on dengue incidence and entomological risk factors in schools and communities.
Specific project objectives
Reduce dengue incidence in communities.
- Reduce dengue entomological risk factors in schools and communities.
- Improve knowledge of dengue, entomology, and vector control in school children and their parents.
- Induce active student involvement in community vector control and monitoring.
- Facilitate improved teaching capabilities, training of teachers, and public health curriculum, especially for dengue.
- Assess the importance of implementation vs. processes on the impact of interventions (fidelity).
Project summary
Dengue is the most common and widespread mosquito-borne arboviral disease globally causing >390 million infections and >20,000 deaths annually. There are no effective vaccines, preventive drugs or treatments. Therefore current efforts to reduce dengue transmission rely primarily on mosquito vector control. Although most vector control methods used by national dengue control programs may temporarily reduce mosquito populations, there is little evidence that they affect transmission. There is a compelling need for innovative, effective and locally adapted approaches for sustainable vector control and monitoring, to which school children can be particularly relevant contributors. Schools have been engaged in national dengue control programs in several countries and school-based vector control research projects have been associated with better dengue knowledge uptake and contributed to improved school and community-based vector control activities. Hence, in this project, we aim to involve middle school students and encourage them to become actors in dengue knowledge transfer to their communities and lead the delivery of vector control interventions and monitoring methods. Following this rationale, we believe that students can become pilots of decentralized vector surveillance and agents of sustainable disease control in line with recent new paradigms in integrated vector surveillance and control. This provides an opportunity to operationalize transdisciplinary research towards sustainable health development. The project aims to improve knowledge of dengue and vector control in students and their parents by inducing active student involvement in community vector control and monitoring and to facilitate improved teaching capabilities by training of teachers and optimizing the general public health curriculum. This will contribute to the long-term project objective to reduce dengue transmission and exposure to dengue risk factors in Myanmar.