Community Health

In order to achieve higher levels of community health, awareness of Leishmaniasis must be increased in affected areas. Once citizens are educated about the threat of the disease and prevention techniques, the number of victims can be drastically reduced. Individuals can prevent against the disease through several methods. Insect repellant can be applied to the skin to prevent sandfly bites. Also, insecticides (e.g. DDT) inside and outside the home will protect against sandflies.

Other techniques used to increase community health include vector control, reservoir control, and vaccination and treatment. In vector control, members of a community attempt to eradicate or alter the sandfly vector population. This can be done through destruction of sandfly resting and breeding sites. Also, increased sanitation and cleaning leads to reduction in sandfly sites. In addition, some groups are currently investigating the potential to genetically alter vector populations. These alterations would result in a loss of susceptibility to the microorganism and the sandfly would no longer be an effective vector.

In reservoir control, typical hosts such as rodents or dogs are either treated or killed. This is feasible because reservoirs typically exhibit symptoms of the disease.