What is COPA?
COPA is a project designed to organize more than 90 communities in 14 zones in Ponce, Puerto Rico, to prevent infections transmitted by mosquitos. COPA means Communities Organized for the Prevention of Arboviruses. In Puerto Rico, the Aedes aegypti is the mosquito responsible for the transmission of the Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika virus. Ponce has presented a high incidence and prevalence of these diseases in the past. An effective mosquito control requires careful and continues a job that starts in the home and requires the support of everyone in the community.
Our Objective
Our objective is to perform continuous community surveillance of the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes in a group of 3,500 participants, perform mosquito surveillance and evaluate the opinion and impact of mosquito control interventions.
What do we do?
We visit randomly selected houses to perform interviews, to learn the way each house member prevents mosquito bites. Our trained personnel also draw blood samples to identify if the person was infected by Dengue, Chikungunya or Zika in the past. These results will be sent back to the participants by mail to the participant’s address. We are looking for household members that sleep in the house more than 4 nights per week, do not have plans to move out of their homes and are younger than 50 years to participate in the project.
Our Collaborators
Unidad de Control de Vectores de Puerto Rico
Raitza Alvarado
Maran Cruz
Edgar Delgado
Nexilianne Borrero
Natalia Colón
Christian Sánchez
Lorence Morell
Brunilda Sabat
Noemí Martínez
Orlando Rodríguez
Lohary Munet
Rafael Saavedra, MPH
Gabriela Algarín, MPH
Julieanne Miranda-Bermúdez, DrPHc, MS
Julieanne Miranda Bermúdez has a master’s in public health with a concentration in environmental health from the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus. Currently is a candidate to a Ph.D. degree in public health with concentration in environmental health from the same institution. Her interest is work to mobilize and empower the communities about health problems, specifically, related to the mosquito Aedes aegypti mosquito
Staff to be hired*” clone_title=”” line=””][thim-heading main_title=”Supervisor of the Educational Program:” title_uppercase=”” sub_heading=”The Dr. Natasha DeLeón-Rodríguez, Supervisor of the Educational Program, has a Ph.D. degree on environmental microbiology from Georgia Institute of Technology. She currently works as Supervisor of the Educational Program. Her interest is to promote formal education in science technology, engineering, and math in the student populations in Puerto Rico.” clone_title=”” line=””][thim-heading main_title=”Director of the Community Mobilization Division:” title_uppercase=”” sub_heading=”Fernando Pineda has a bachelor’s degree in clinical biochemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He has more than 15 years of experience working with communities and is the founder of the CREA Results in Denver, Colorado. His interest is with the health promoters and the search health equity among the communities.” clone_title=”” line=””][thim-heading main_title=”Technical director of the PRVCU:” title_uppercase=”” sub_heading=”Dr. Angela Harris worked on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and is the Technical Director of the Puerto Rico Vector Control Unit. Dr. Harris has a master’s and a Ph.D. from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, respectively. She has worked for over ten years in the Aedes aegypti mosquito control in the Caribbean.” clone_title=”” line=””][thim-heading main_title=”Associate Director of the PRVCU:” title_uppercase=”” sub_heading=”Dr. Marianyoly Ortíz, Associate Director of the PRVCU, has a Ph.D. degree on Environmental Sciences and microbiology from the University of Arizona.” clone_title=”” line=””]
Contact Us
Adress: Proyecto COPA. 395 Dr. Luis F. Salas Street. Research Building Ponce PR, 00716
Phone: (787) 221-9561
Email: proyectoCOPA@psm.edu
Facebook: Proyecto COPA
Microsite COPA: http://prvectorcontrol.org/proyecto-copa/
Contact Our Collaborators:
Ponce Health Sciences University https://www.psm.edu/
Unidad de Control de Vectores de Puerto Rico http://prvectorcontrol.org/
CDC Dengue Branch https://www.cdc.gov/spanish/enfermedades/dengue/index.html