Presently, 7-10 million people in Latin America are infected with Chagas disease. This potentially fatal disease is spread by insects that burrow into the ground and bite people while they are sitting or sleeping on dirt floors. Children are specifically prone to contracting this disease, as they learn to crawl and walk on the dirt floors, increasing the likeliness of parasitic infection, diarrheal disease, and respiratory illness.The concrete floors that Public Health Brigades constructs prevents these bugs from burrowing into the floor, thus preventing much of the spread of Chagas disease. The concrete floors also provide a more sanitary living environment for families, who are able easily clean them with water.
Showers
One of the main tenets of personal hygiene is to bathe daily, yet most rural Honduran and Panamanian homes do not have a private, sanitary place to do this. Without a shower or a pila, people are forced to use the river or other impure sources of water to bathe themselves, sometimes in full view of the community. The shower structure provides a private space for daily bathing.
Eco-Stoves
Respiratory problems are a major health concern in rural Honduras and Panama. Family members currently cook over open flames in poorly ventilated rooms, which leads to the inhalation of smoke, eye irritation, and other health problems. The majority of rural families use wood-burning stoves (without chimneys) for all their daily cooking. The eco-stove design includes a chimney which filters smoke and other pollutants outside the home and significantly reduces pulmonary complications. Additionally, the these stoves reduce the wood used per family; from 30 pieces of wood to 8 daily. This dramatically reduces the time and workload of wood-gathering, and also decreases the community's environmental impact (since 1990, Honduras has lost 30.1% of its forests and woodlands.)
pilas
After a community has a working water system with treated water, the next step is storing that water in a sanitary way for constant access. The pila, a partially-covered water storage unit, reduces the time spent bringing water from the local source and ensures that families have the ability to practice good personal hygiene and sanitation, such as washing their dishes, hands, clothes, and children. Additionally, proper water storage prevents a breeding ground of mosquitos, the source of malaria and dengue fever.
Latrines
The lack of proper sanitary facilities in many rural homes and villages causes the spread of infectious diseases and parasites that enter the water sources. Diarrheal disease which is often spread through poor sanitary conditions, kills 4.5 million children annually. A latrine with an underground septic tank provides the family with a hygienic system to dispose of waste.
community education
Public Health Brigades promotes preventative strategies to improve quality of life and prevent life-threatening diseases by teaching in the elementary level schools, and working with teachers within the community. We perform skits or create songs to make for an enjoyable lesson. The Public Health Brigades team has worked with community teachers to identify important subjects for brigaders to teach the community members. Each month of the year has a special health-related topic that will be focused on. Brigade volunteers work with community instructors to teach and facilitate a workshop pertaining to the topic of the month that is assigned.