Meet Nurse Prado
For many people across the world, mosquitos can be more than just the source of obnoxious whining in the ears. The insect is one of the most notorious vectors, and can carry diseases like Dengue, Yellow fever, Zika and Malaria. In 2014, Leslie Prado, PA-C, worked with the Pan-American World Health Organization to address these vector borne-diseases through collaboration with epidemiologists across Latin America.
The issue originally drew Prado’s interest through her love of travel and the global community. “I love the movement of people and understanding different cultures, but at the same time there’s the reminder that nothing has borders anymore, no matter how much we want to define them,” Prado stated. “We’re not really going to get to the root of the problem if we just focus on the health of one country.”
Prado emphasized the importance of exchanging data and communicating between organizations in staying up-to-date on the latest vector-borne-diseases and responding in a manner that would be most beneficial for the country. “That’s how we get stronger, when we understand what’s happening in other countries,” she voiced. “When we share that knowledge and information, then we can move resources and specialists in a lot quicker.” Prado found even something as simple as being bilingual helped ease and quicken the communications with epidemiologists and the collection of the latest information.
Knowledge about vector-borne diseases isn’t just for medical professionals, however. “We don’t really talk about it a lot.” Prado noted the little-discussed nature of the health issue among the general public. “We don’t discuss it in the media as much as we should.” One of the potential barriers to discussing any disease is language. Medical jargon can be quite intimidating, at the detriment of not receiving vital information.
Prado herself recognized this obstacle, and was able to overcome it. “It’s about giving enough information so that someone who is at the level of an advanced epidemiologist can understand… but also having a language for someone who has no idea what’s going on and wants to find out more information about a certain disease and actually understand the follow through,” she explained. Information about vector-borne diseases is especially significant for people traveling to or from “hot-zones.”
To reach travelers, Prado and her team went to Dulles Airport. Besides having a huge table, the group also had someone “dressed up like a mosquito flying around,” to draw attention. Prado’s team gave out prevention equipment – such as mosquito nets and bug sprays –and also held discussions with women and men who were wanting to have families, as many vector-borne diseases can affect fetuses and newborns. “I think people were very grateful, but it was also very informative” Prado conveyed. “Some people weren’t aware there were outbreaks happening in their countries.”
One of the most recent outbreaks in D.C. was West Nile Virus. When discussing the virus, Prado explained how unfortunately the diseases are just “so connected to socio-economic factors.” Poor housing and poor access to water and sanitation make prevention difficult to implement. Some people can’t even avoid something as simple as being out when the mosquitos are out during the day or night, depending on housing situations or their work schedules. Regardless of where the outbreak is, Prado re-emphasized her belief in the power of communication and collaboration. “Don’t reinvent the wheel,” she stated. “If you’re trying to help a certain community, or city, or area, and you don’t understand or engage the local community, activists, and leaders, then [the project] is not sustainable.”
As an established interlocutor between one country and another, Leslie Prado will keep global connections strong and solutions to health issues viable.