ABSTRACT
Even though Léogâne (Haiti) is considered an area of high endemicity for dengue, anecdotal evidence suggested that both MSF national staff and the general community had little awareness or understanding of the disease and its burden, and this was thought to be one of the reasons why public health efforts to combat dengue in Léogâne were limited. An understanding of local perceptions about dengue could inform MSF plans to tackle dengue in the area. In order to explore the conceptual dimensions of dengue ‘invisibility’ among health workers, as well as the perceptions and responses of the community to febrile illnesses in a location that has experienced recent major disease outbreaks, a study involving qualitative and quantitative methods was undertaken. The results of this study showed that local ideological opposition ‘against dengue’ was more likely to contribute towards dengue unawareness than reliance on ‘traditional culture’. This opposition was a result of the medical culture of resistance against the alleged Haitian origins of HIV in the early 1980s in the USA, and which was reinstated during the 2010–2011 cholera outbreak.
