More than ticking boxes: Training Lyme disease education ambassadors to meet outreach and surveillance challenges in Québec, Canada

Autor: Alejandra Irace-Cima, Ariane Adam-Poupart, Marion Ripoche, Karine Thivierge, Karl Forest-Bérard
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Male
Volunteers
Epidemiology
Social Sciences
Disease Vectors
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Geographical locations
Lyme disease
Medical Conditions
Ticks
Sociology
Medicine and Health Sciences
Public and Occupational Health
education.field_of_study
Disease surveillance
Lyme Disease
Multidisciplinary
biology
Quebec
Eukaryota
Middle Aged
Bacterial Pathogens
Outreach
Geography
Infectious Diseases
Social system
Ixodes scapularis
Medical Microbiology
Population Surveillance
Medicine
Educational Status
Female
Workshops
Pathogens
Research Article
Adult
medicine.medical_specialty
Canada
Arthropoda
Borrelia Burgdorferi
Science
Population
Tick
Disease Surveillance
Microbiology
Education
Environmental health
Arachnida
medicine
Animals
Humans
education
Microbial Pathogens
Ixodes
Bacteria
Public health
Borrelia
Organisms
Biology and Life Sciences
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
Invertebrates
Trainees
Species Interactions
Medical Risk Factors
North America
Population Groupings
People and places
Zoology
Zdroj: PLoS ONE
PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 10, p e0258466 (2021)
ISSN: 1932-6203
Popis: Lyme disease (LD) is an emerging public health threat in Canada, associated with the northward range expansion of the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis). To address this, public health authorities have been carrying out surveillance activities and awareness campaigns targeting vulnerable populations such as outdoor workers. Implementing these measures is time-consuming and resource-intensive, prompting the assessment of alternatives. Our goal was to evaluate the feasibility and implementation of a training-of-trainers-inspired approach in raising awareness about LD risk and prevention among workers and general population, as well as to evaluate its potential to contribute to provincial LD surveillance efforts. We trained a group of workers from publicly-accessible outdoor parks of the province of Québec to become “LD education ambassadors”. Ambassadors were trained to raise tick and LD awareness, share information on preventive measures in their respective communities, and lead tick sampling activities using a standardised protocol similar to that used by Public Health authorities. Ambassador-led outreach activities, public reach, sampling activities and collected ticks were documented, as well as ambassadors’ satisfaction with the training using forms and semi-structured interviews. In total, 18 ambassadors from 12 organizations were trained. Between June and September 2019, they led 28 independent outreach activities, reaching over 1 860 individuals (from occupational and general public settings) in seven public health units. Ambassadors led 28 tick samplings, together collecting 11 I. scapularis ticks. This study suggests that an adapted training-of-trainers is a feasible approach to raising tick and LD risk awareness among Québec outdoor workers and public. Trained ambassadors have the potential of reaching a large portion of the population visiting or working in outdoor parks while also providing much-needed outreach regarding risk and prevention. Pushing this concept further to include other types of workers and jurisdictions may contribute to national LD surveillance efforts.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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