Development of Appropriate Model for People Participation on Prevention of the Spread over of Bird Flu Disease

The goal of this research is to enhance and strengthen the health of the rural community population to prevent the spread of infectious disease and to improve the quality of life of the civil population who live in rural areas. The investigation employs participatory action research (PAR) which examines the methods that the communities and villagers in the former H5N1 pandemic area in western rural Thailand are using to prevent the widespread of AH1N1 and H5N1 between August and October 2009. The research grant is from the National Research Council of Thailand via Mahidol University.

 

The base line data files are from the five year longitudinal study of the Kanchanaburi Demographic Surveillance System (KDSS) between 2000 and 2004. From that data set, the research team examined village characteristics and some risk behaviors of communities and villagers that may be prone to contact AH1N1 and H5N1. They are: (1) the villages that used to be the H5N1 pandemic area and had some deaths due to this disease. (2) Location of village setting is next to the main road which connected to poultry industry and always has a flea market. (3) The village and near- by community have a high proportion of households raising roosters and domestic chickens for market and household consumption. And (4) some of the villages are located in remote areas e.g. on hilly areas with dense forest which is far away from town, but always have a mobile market that carries food and some products from town to community by motorcycles and pick up truck. The process is similar to flea market. As a result, sometimes there are congested situations in the community that may induce the spread of AH1N1. Therefore, there are 15 villages involved in this study. Further, to understand the village and community social and geographical context, the study employs qualitative methods under grounded theory approach such as participation and observation, focus group discussions, small group discussions, and in-depth interviews as gathering data procedure. Then all researchers work closely with villagers side by side to develop appropriate methods that enable adjustment and adaptation to their social context i.e. culture norm and belief, and villages’ physical geography.

 

Community participation of implementation program and some acting activities are undergoing. As a result, findings of this study will be reported within this December. Attached are photos of some activities in some villages.