Chagas' disease: control and surveillance through use of insecticides and community participation in Mambaí, Goiás, Brazil.

This article describes the nature and effectiveness of methods developed for longitudinal surveillance and control of Chagas' disease vectors in Mambaí, Brazil. The surveillance effort made use of an education program in the schools, community leader and resident participation, specific surveillance equipment (Gómez-Núñez boxes, instructive posters, and instructive calendars with special detection papers), periodic manual collection of triatomines, and a network of collection posts. Spraying of infested houses was accomplished partly by community leaders who received special training for this purpose. The methods used offer an affordable approach to triatomine surveillance and control well-suited to use in large-scale national programs.