In 2011, The University of California, Berkeley in partnership with the Centro de Investigación de Enfermedades Tropicales (CIET), conducted a study in Nicaragua and Mexico with the aim of assessing the effect of community mobilization for sustainable control of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito (the primary cause of Dengue and Zika transmission in tropical climates). Prior to this study, all attempts to control the Aedes Aegypti mosquito involved toxic insecticides and were, for the large part, ineffective. As a result, the new initiative was dubbed, Camino Verde —a Green Path— to dengue prevention.

Three kinds of evidence provided the basis for community mobilization as well as for measuring the results. Evidence was gathered from a panel of urban and rural communities with results from the active communities compared side by side with communities where the was no Camino Verde initiative.

This kind of comparative study is known as a cluster randomized controlled trial, because the sites are randomly assigned to the intervention or control groups and balanced according to the area and children’s entomological and immunological status. Over one hundred thousand people participated in the intervention across Mexico and Nicaragua.

The results of the Camino Verde trial were published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) in July 2015. See: http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj.h3267. 

Evidence based community mobilization can add effectiveness to dengue vector control. Each site implementing the intervention in its own way has the advantage of local customization and strong community engagement.

SSI continues to implement community based participation and awareness in conjunction with traditional epidemiological research, delivering a potent one two punch against Dengue and other Arboviruses.