Preventing vector-borne disease outbreaks in emergent peri-urban settings: a transdisciplinary study on the Integrated Housing Development Programme in Jimma, Ethiopia

Conducting interdisciplinary studies has been suggested as a way to address the impact of human activity in environmental changes affecting malaria and NTD transmission. This project aims to design an intervention in the built environment to reduce exposure to malaria and schistosomiasis vectors in social housing condominiums developed through the Integrated Housing Development Programme (IHDP) in Jimma Town, Ethiopia. Through contributions from the architecture, medical anthropology and entomology fields, we aim to reduce presence of malaria and schistosomiasis’ vectors in peri-urban areas exposed to environmental conditions associated with malaria and schistosomiasis transmission. This approach has been selected based on the premise that social housing condominiums are being developed in Ethiopian cities following a prototype that dismisses context-specific factors that determine uses of spaces by homeowners and consequently, their potential exposure to vector-borne diseases. In this context, we propose dialogue with local communities as central piece of disease prevention.