Clara Mantini-Briggs
Visiting Scholar 2004 -
Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS)

Area of Expertise: Public Health

Country of Expertise: Venezuela

Current Research Project: Dengue in the Americas presents a high rate of mortality. In the past twenty years dengue has gone from being hipoendemic a hiperendemic. The presence of the four strands of the dengue virus and the high rate of dengue and the high rate of proliferation and infestation of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, transmitter of the disease, have provoked an increase in the incidence of dengue and dengue hemorrágico in countries of the Americas, according to data and literature from the Panamerican Health Organization.

The implementation of programs that fight against dengue in Venezuela and other countries in the region have been thought out by public health professionals since the creation of the stereotype that the public is unable to understand their role in prevention and consequently unable to actively participate in the prevention and solution of health issues. This manner of thinking is also evident in the proposed health programs emanated from the highest levels in health organizations all over the world, which have led only temporary positive results against these and other types of infectious diseases.

The goal in Venezuela was to demystify who was at fault in the proliferation of dengue through a search for the active participation of the public with the perspective of different groups or publics capable of understanding the responsibility and importance of their participation in the fight against dengue through the creation of different strategies thought out so that all groups or different publics would actively and continually participate in the activities of the new PNLCD model. The completion of these activities resulted in a decrease in the spread and deaths caused by dengue and dengue hemorrágico from 2001 to 2002.

Project Title: Rethinking "the Public" in the National Plan to Fights Against Dengue (PNLCD) in Venezuela and Graphical Representation of the Population in the Prevention of Dengue

Academic Background: Dr. Mantini-Briggs received her MD from the University of Carabobo in 1990 and an MIPH from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in 2000. She was the coordinator for the National Program for Dengue Fever and National Director of Health Education at the Venezuelan Ministry of Health and Social Development. She has also worked in the Consejo Nacional Indio Venezolano (CONIVE), where she evaluated health programs in Indian communities in Venezuela.

Selected Publications:

• Briggs, Charles, and Clara Mantini-Briggs. Stories in the Time of Cholera: Racial Profilingduring a Medical Nightmare. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
• Briggs, Charles, and Clara Mantini-Briggs. "Gender, Race, Class, and Institutional Authority in an Infanticide Trial in Venezuela." Law and Social Inquiry 25(2) (2003):299-354.