Case Study Assignment – Environmental Global Health

Unit 4 - Case Study Assignment – Environmental Global Health
Instructions:
Read the case studies for this assignment and complete the provided template. You will need to use the
case study, concepts learned in class, and other credible resources to assist you in completing your
analysis and presentation of findings.
Note: Each box must have 5 - 7 content related sentences. Please include any in-text citations in each box,
and references at the bottom.
For the CONCLUSION – You must provide TWO 5-7 sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph will be a
summary overview. The second paragraph will present your SUPPORTED opinion on which effort was (or
will be) most effective.
Be sure to support your perspective with facts and research on why you feel it is the most effective effort.
Case # 10: Controlling Trachoma in Morocco Case # 12: Controlling Chagas Disease in the
Southern Cone of South America

Geographic Area Involved
Morocco
Geographic Area Involved
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay,
Uruguay and Peru
Health Needs
The standard treatment for all individuals with effective
trachoma is a single dose of an antibiotic (azithromycin). This
antibiotic is prescribed also for the individual being treated
contacts. A touch is anyone who stays and/or sleeps in the same
room as a trachoma sufferer. If the indiividual lives or sleeps in
numerous households then all household members are
considered contacts. If a group has a high trachoma incidence
then all Aboriginal community members should be treated with
this antibiotic.
Aboriginal adults over 40 years of age should be tested for
trichiasis regularly in populations where trachoma is normally
present (endemic).
Health Needs
The antiparasitary drugs benznidazole and nifurtimox may be
used. Both medications are nearly 100% efficient in infected
newborn children and are extremely effective in treating patients
during the acute phase of the illness. The effectiveness of both
drugs, however, reduces the longer an individual is infected.
Chronic illness patients may also need heart or gastrointestinal
care. Infected individuals, particularly those without symptoms,
should be given aetiologic care. The economic benefits are also
significant, in addition to the social and health benefits of
managing the Chagas disease.

Financial/Cultural Costs (socioeconomic)
The Moroccan administration, with external assistance from the
United Nations Children's Financing and a public-private
partnership called the International Trachoma Project, has
offered the bulk of the program funding. The pharmaceutical
company Pfizer has donated more than $72 million value of its
antimicrobial Zithromax through such a collaboration.
In the mid-80s, the Edna McConnell Clark Hospital
reinvigorated trachoma through the funding of comprehensive
epidemiological studies and feasible management options. The
research also helped to develop a new, systematic trachoma
treatment and prevention approach. The technique was dubbed
"SAFE," and reflects the four key strategies–Surgery,
antibiotics, facial cleanliness, and environmental change.
Financial/Cultural Costs (socioeconomic)
Eliminating the insect vector in infested homes was a critical
first step, and the technological and operating processes to
achieve this goal are now proven successful and cost-effective.
Medical management of houses with long-lasting pyrethroid
insecticides has removed or greatly reduced the population of
insect vectors in the entire southern cone. Spray teams operated
through the health ministries treat every house in local
governments where the existence of the vector has been verified.
Around 1992 and 2001, they sprayed over 2.5 million houses.
Canisters which emit insecticidal fumes have also been
distributed to households when lit.
Outcome of Intervention
Government officials at the Health Ministry worked swiftly to
Outcome of Intervention