The project name “MATE” (Monitoreo Argentino en Tele-Epidemiología) recalls a kind of herb tea which is very popular in Argentina. The MATE Project is supported by the CNES, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the CONAE, and the Argentine Ministry of Health. Its goal for 2007 is to have the future human health user community (hospitals, vector control services, social welfare services) participate in the deployment of an operational network to control and predict the prevalence of dengue disease in Argentina. Beyond 2007, this project might be continued on a mutual cooperation basis with Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, and other neighboring countries pursuant to setting up an early warning network to control and predict dengue disease all over South America.
SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
To develop knowledge and tools for disease surveillance.
To design, develop and validate (analytical and modeling design plus the relative algorithms) landscape epidemiology strategies and tools in the control and prevention of dengue disease.
To generate risk maps, descriptive and predictive models of insect population and dengue transmission, by means of remotely sensed data, and preliminary models including validation at a first stage.
To implement an early warning system for this pathology (an operating network for vector surveillance in sentinel sites, through standardized sampling in strategic hot spots within transmission risk areas).
To issue manuals on the operative aspects of a surveillance strategy involving transmission insects captured in critical sites and data acquired by remote sensing (preliminary proposal to be developed after project) and from an early warning system for dengue disease.
To transfer these strategies to the national health agencies, which have the scientific and technical background as well as the personnel required for such strategies to be operative and sustainable.
To transfer the system and knowledge to allow the implementation of a regional network for dengue surveillance in South America.
DESCRIPTION OF WORK PACKAGES
