Preventing and Controlling Tropical Infectious Diseases: Lessons from the Global South

While the role of Lay Community Health Workers (LCHWs) in the health systems of the global North is relatively new, the use of LCHWs in the global South is widely promoted as a strategy for reducing health inequities. In the global North, the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated the significant role LCHWs can play in infectious disease prevention and control. LCHWs engaged with communities to not only provide information on and education about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination, but also to build relationships and trust among populations that have historically been under served and under resourced. What can the global North learn from the global South about the role and usefulness of LCHWs when controlling and preventing disease? For this question, we are particularly interested in learning from programs utilizing LCHWs when engaging with the community to build relationships and trust when working to control and prevent tropical infectious diseases.

The goal of this issue will be to:

a. Share knowledge about the role of the LCHWs from the perspective of the global South.
b. Explore successful community engagement models so that the global North can learn from the experience of LCHW programs in the global South.
c. How do/can the implementation of non-clinical and non-epidemiological components of public health work to prevent and control tropical infectious diseases by strengthening communities and building relationships and trust?

We are seeking empirical research and case studies that explore the following subthemes:

- Trust/mistrust/distrust
- Relationship building
- Equity
- Community engagement
- Bottom-up approaches versus top-down approaches
- Community health and well-being