Abstract
Good health and human wellbeing is one of the sustainable development goals. To achieve this goal, many efforts are required to control infectious diseases including malaria which remains a major public health concern in Rwanda. Surveillance of mosquitoes is critical to control the disease, but surveillance rarely includes the participation of citizens. A citizen science approach (CSA) has been applied for mosquito surveillance in developed countries, but it is unknown whether it is feasible in rural African contexts. In this paper, the technical and social components of such a program are described. Participatory design workshops were conducted in Ruhuha, Rwanda. Community members can decide on the technical tools for collecting and reporting mosquito species, mosquito nuisance, and confirmed malaria cases. Community members set up a social structure to gather observations by nominating representatives to collect the reports and send them to the researchers. These results demonstrate that co-designing a citizen science program (CSP) with citizens allows for decision on what to use in reporting observations. The decisions that the citizens took demonstrated that they have context-specific knowledge and skills, and showed that implementing a CSP in a rural area is feasible.
Highlights
Malaria remains a major public health concern in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Rwanda [1,2]
The first section presents the outcomes of the pilot workshop which indicate the responses about mosquito nuisance experienced and willingness to collect mosquitoes
The second section elaborates the results of the five Participatory design workshops (PDWs) which are divided into two main themes: (a) The technical component that includes tools to collect and report the observations, and (b) a social component that consists of (1) recruitment of volunteers, and collection of information, (2) strategies for collecting and or reporting the observations, and (3) mechanisms of feedback to the community members about the outcomes of the shared observations
Summary
Malaria remains a major public health concern in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Rwanda [1,2]. Since the level of investment in malaria control across the world remains inadequate [5,6], the World Health Organization supports the development of effective and locally adapted sustainable vector control [5] The latter includes mosquito surveillance, which consists of regular reporting of the density and the pathogen prevalence rate of vectors in a specific region. Mosquito surveillance is based on the systematic reporting of the distribution, diversity, and density of malaria vectors using pyrethrum spray and human landing catches (HLC) as mosquito collection methods Another indicator that is being reported is the entomological inoculation rate (EIR), expressed as the number of infectious bites per person per year [9]. The entomologists submit a compiled monthly report with entomological indicators mentioned above to the person in charge of the vector control unit of Rwanda Biomedical Center for compilation, and further analysis [10] to guide the planning of interventions
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