Abstract
BackgroundRecent arboviral disease outbreaks highlight the value a better understanding of the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes across spatial-temporal scales can provide. Traditional surveillance tools are limited by jurisdictional boundaries, workforce constraints, logistics, and cost; factors that in low- and middle-income countries often conspire to undermine public health protection efforts. To overcome these, we undertake a pilot study designed to explore if citizen science provides a feasible strategy for arboviral vector surveillance in small developing Pacific island contexts.MethodsWe recruited, trained, and equipped community volunteers to trap and type mosquitos within their household settings, and to report count data to a central authority by short-message-service. Mosquito catches were independently assessed to measure participants’ mosquito identification accuracy. Other data were collected to measure the frequency and stability of reporting, and volunteers’ experiences.ResultsParticipants collected data for 78.3% of the study period, and agreement between the volunteer citizen scientists’ and the reviewing entomologist’s mosquito identification was 94%. Opportunity to contribute to a project of social benefit, the chance to learn new skills, and the frequency of engagement with project staff were prime motivators for participation. Unstable electricity supply (required to run the trap’s fan), insufficient personal finances (to buy electricity and phone credit), and inconvenience were identified as barriers to sustained participation.ConclusionsWhile there are challenges to address, our findings suggest that citizen science offers an opportunity to overcome the human resource constraints that conspire to limit health authorities’ capacity to monitor arboviral vectors across populations. We note that the success of citizen science-based surveillance is dependent on the appropriate selection of equipment and participants, and the quality of engagement and support provided.
Highlights
Recent arboviral disease outbreaks highlight the value a better understanding of the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes across spatial-temporal scales can provide
Recent Zika, chikungunya, and dengue outbreaks [1,2,3] demonstrate that invasive mosquito species that are disease vectors pose a significant threat to public health
Citizen science can be defined as ‘the practice of amateur participation in scientific research, including data collection, to aid scientific investigation and knowledge’ [20]. While these trials have been conducted in both developed and developing settings, to the best of our knowledge, no research exploring the utility citizen science may play as a tool for arboviral vector surveillance in a Pacific island context has been conducted
Summary
Recent arboviral disease outbreaks highlight the value a better understanding of the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes across spatial-temporal scales can provide. Recent arboviral disease outbreaks [7,8,9,10,11] have highlighted the public health value a better understanding of the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes across multiple spatial-temporal scales can provide. Citizen science can be defined as ‘the practice of amateur (or non-professional) participation in scientific research, including data collection, to aid scientific investigation and knowledge’ [20]. While these trials have been conducted in both developed and developing settings, to the best of our knowledge, no research exploring the utility citizen science may play as a tool for arboviral vector surveillance in a Pacific island context has been conducted
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