Jewel P. Jones, BA¹, John C Pan, BA¹, and Phil Landrigan, MD, MSc². (1) Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave Levy Place, Box 1057, New York, NY 10029, 917-495-9829, jewel.jones@mssm.edu, (2) Director, Division of Enviornmental & Occupational Medicine, Mt. Sinai Hospital Department of Community Medicine, One Gustave Levy Place, New York, NY 10029-6574

Malaria is responsible for over one million deaths a year, of which ninety percent occurs in African children under the age of 5 and in pregnant women. The use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) is effective in reducing malaria infection by fifty percent and mortality by at least twenty percent, proving ITNs to be a very cost-effective method in malaria control. Less than one percent of rural Nigerian households use ITNs. In this work, a community-based approach was used to understand community perceptions of malaria, determine the factors limiting use of ITNs, and design an intervention to introduce ITNs in a village in Oyo State, Nigeria. The approach included working with a team of medical students, public health officials, and community residents, to survey 176 residents and design an intervention to overcome two significant barriers to use of ITNs: cost and availability. As follow-up, the team will visit the village in three month intervals to monitor community perceptions, use of ITNs, reduction in the incidence of malaria, and continue to educate residents on malaria prevention.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Describe a community-based approach to improving the health of a rural community in Nigeria.
• 2. Describe the benefits of using a community-based approach.
• 3. Understand how to sustain a community-based environmental health intervention in rural Nigeria

Keywords: Community Health Assessment, International Public Health

Related Web page: www.msmi.info

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.