Addressing challenges faced by insecticide spraying for the control of dengue fever in Bangkok, Thailand: a qualitative approach

Background This study focused on evaluating the fumigation scheme and identifying problems encountered during the operation in the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration area. Methods Ten district health officers working in different fumigation teams of the dengue outbreak control programme around Bangkok had participated in an in-depth interview. Five predetermined themes, including (i) dengue surveillance and control strategy, (ii) quality and availability of equipment, (iii) delays, (iv) human resources, and (v) area coverage, and other emerging themes were addressed during the interviews. Results Although the staff seemed to know the operation protocol of the dengue surveillance and control programmes well, they encountered some difficulties in accessing households for proper spraying, and a lack of human and material resources, especially during an outbreak. Other emerging themes concerned inefficient communications among the sectors from hospital to district offices, leading to inaccurate or missing patient addresses for spraying, and the lack of community networks and public cooperation for the dengue control programmes. Conclusions The findings suggest that coordination among the relevant health sectors to acquire accurate and timely information about dengue cases is essential. Involving community networks should help to improve public engagement with and participation in the surveillance and outbreak control programmes.</p

Addressing challenges faced by insecticide spraying for the control of dengue fever in Bangkok, Thailand: a qualitative approach

Background This study focused on evaluating the fumigation scheme and identifying problems encountered during the operation in the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration area. Methods Ten district health officers working in different fumigation teams of the dengue outbreak control programme around Bangkok had participated in an in-depth interview. Five predetermined themes, including (i) dengue surveillance and control strategy, (ii) quality and availability of equipment, (iii) delays, (iv) human resources, and (v) area coverage, and other emerging themes were addressed during the interviews. Results Although the staff seemed to know the operation protocol of the dengue surveillance and control programmes well, they encountered some difficulties in accessing households for proper spraying, and a lack of human and material resources, especially during an outbreak. Other emerging themes concerned inefficient communications among the sectors from hospital to district offices, leading to inaccurate or missing patient addresses for spraying, and the lack of community networks and public cooperation for the dengue control programmes. Conclusions The findings suggest that coordination among the relevant health sectors to acquire accurate and timely information about dengue cases is essential. Involving community networks should help to improve public engagement with and participation in the surveillance and outbreak control programmes.</p

Sonication synthesis of micro-sized silver nanoparticle/oleic acid liquid marbles: A novel SERS sensing platform

All rights reserved. Liquid marbles are entities made of a small amount of liquid encapsulated by micro/nano scale particles. The functionality of liquid marbles depends on both the core liquid and particle coating. In this work, functional silver nanoparticle (Ag NPs)/oleic acid liquid marbles are developed using Ag NPs to encapsulate micro-sized oleic acid liquid spheres, which is achieved via sonication. We demonstrate that both the size of the encapsulated spheres and the order of the Ag NPs coating are a function of the sonication time. These micro-sized liquid marbles are investigated for sensing an organic thiolate as a model material. Their capacity for increasing solar light absorption and energy conversion into heat is also studied. The liquid marbles generated after sonication for 60 min show the strongest Raman peak signals which originate from the thiolate. They also demonstrate the highest solar energy absorption. We ascribe these enhancements to the increased surface area of the Ag NPs/oleic acid spheres and the optimum order of Ag NPs to produce the strongest surface enhanced Raman scattering. The liquid marbles can be used for the development of future biosensors and solar-thermal absorbers