11/16/2011
Today we woke up early and went to the local village of Chila to experience a community where tropical diseases are a big threat. We split into three groups and each group went to a different location to find and learn more about mosquitoes, specifically the anopheles mosquito that transfers Malaria. My group went to a nearby lagoon.
At the lagoon, our instructor found and told us about each stage of a mosquito’s life. First we found eggs, which were located all around the edges of the lagoon in the brush. Next, we looked at the larva. There are four stages of mosquito larva and the way you can tell an anopheles mosquito from another larva is that anopheles larva lay horizontally on the surface of the water. Next, we located mosquitoes in their next stage in life, pupa. This stage right before adulthood and is when a mosquito starts to look like the insect we are all well aware of. Once adults, mosquitoes only return to the lagoon to nurture their eggs. Otherwise, mosquitoes will hang out in refuges till the night, when they can bite more victims. Therefore, to see the adult mosquito we went to a different location where some deep dark wells where mosquitoes would commonly hang out. We saw several adult mosquitoes and even caught a few to get a closer look.
At the lagoon, our instructor found and told us about each stage of a mosquito’s life. First we found eggs, which were located all around the edges of the lagoon in the brush. Next, we looked at the larva. There are four stages of mosquito larva and the way you can tell an anopheles mosquito from another larva is that anopheles larva lay horizontally on the surface of the water. Next, we located mosquitoes in their next stage in life, pupa. This stage right before adulthood and is when a mosquito starts to look like the insect we are all well aware of. Once adults, mosquitoes only return to the lagoon to nurture their eggs. Otherwise, mosquitoes will hang out in refuges till the night, when they can bite more victims. Therefore, to see the adult mosquito we went to a different location where some deep dark wells where mosquitoes would commonly hang out. We saw several adult mosquitoes and even caught a few to get a closer look.
11/17/2011
We started off today’s brigade by meeting some of the tropical disease control team in the area. Next, the team took us to a nearby house where they fumigated the house with an insecticide. Normally, when a case of the disease is found, the tropical disease control team will come in and fumigate that house and up to ten houses beyond where the infected case was. The biggest problem with these tropical diseases is that a healthy insect must first bite an infected person in order to carry and transfer the disease to others. Therefore, when a case becomes present, the entire area must be fumigated and the sick patient must be kept under a net away from insects at all times.
After the demonstration we split into our groups again to go find chinche bugs, which transmit the disease Chagas. We went to a house in the community that was known to have over 30 chinches in the surrounding area. In fact, the little boy that lives there with his family was infected with Chagas when he was only two years old. Fortunately, the boy, who is now seven, has been asymptomatic, but his symptoms could develop at any moment. We fortunately didn’t find any chinches but the instructor showed us all the common places these bugs like to hide.
Finally, we finished out the day looking for more mosquitoes, but we focused on mosquitoes that transfer the disease Dengue. The mosquitoes that transfer Dengue are called Aedis Aegipty and they are a little different than the anopheles mosquito. Aedis mosquito larva prefer to grow on the walls of still water, like water tanks or flower pots. They also are different than anopheles in that the larva are underwater and will zigzag up to the surface to breathe. We went to two different houses that had these types of larva in their water tanks. Our instructor explained to us how the residence must change their water every four days and need to cover these tanks so know mosquitoes can get in to lay their eggs.
After the demonstration we split into our groups again to go find chinche bugs, which transmit the disease Chagas. We went to a house in the community that was known to have over 30 chinches in the surrounding area. In fact, the little boy that lives there with his family was infected with Chagas when he was only two years old. Fortunately, the boy, who is now seven, has been asymptomatic, but his symptoms could develop at any moment. We fortunately didn’t find any chinches but the instructor showed us all the common places these bugs like to hide.
Finally, we finished out the day looking for more mosquitoes, but we focused on mosquitoes that transfer the disease Dengue. The mosquitoes that transfer Dengue are called Aedis Aegipty and they are a little different than the anopheles mosquito. Aedis mosquito larva prefer to grow on the walls of still water, like water tanks or flower pots. They also are different than anopheles in that the larva are underwater and will zigzag up to the surface to breathe. We went to two different houses that had these types of larva in their water tanks. Our instructor explained to us how the residence must change their water every four days and need to cover these tanks so know mosquitoes can get in to lay their eggs.
11/18/2011
For our last day working on tropical diseases, we took all our newly learned knowledge and experience and gave a presentation to women in the Opportunidades program. For those of you that don’t remember, Opportunidades is a program that will pay for your medical expenses as long as you attend doctor consults and prevention seminars each month. We put a lot of time into our presentation, which was a little different because the women that attended could not read or write. We gave a small oral presentation and then preformed skits involving the audience to keep them interested. The experience was really great and, at the end, the women seemed very appreciative and interested in the prevention that we were emphasizing.
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