On May 23rd, 2022, MEF hosted a scientific symposium “Building a Methodology for Identifying Infectious Diseases Hotspots and Measuring Women’s Vulnerability to Health Crisis” in Can Tho City. The program brought together 27 senior experts and researchers from Colorado State University, Virginia State University, the Southeast Asia One Health University Network (SEOHUN), provincial CDC officers, and the Women’s Unions in the Mekong Delta. This symposium aimed to develop a concrete methodology and solutions for identifying probable hotspots for zoonotic diseases, climate-sensitive diseases, and waterborne diseases, and for measuring the community’s vulnerability to these threats from a feminist perspective.
Marie C. Damour, the US Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, in her pre-recorded opening remarks highly appreciated MEF’s role in promoting environmental and public health protection in Vietnam. The participants had an in-depth discussion over the environmental and health security nexus in the Mekong Delta and finalized particular diseases to be included in the WV Tracker citizen science mobile app.
After the workshop, the project team and advisors developed the WV Tracker app with the support of the Citizen Science Program (CitSci.org) of Colorado State University (USA).