Provision to recruit a local research company/team to support the Research on behavioral drivers of dengue prevention and control practices among students, school administration and parents as per the

LOCAL BIDDERS ONLY **********

Please use TOR Revision 1 for quoting purposes

1.      Background:

Sri Lanka is a tropical country with a year-round warm weather, moderated by ocean winds and considerable moisture. The rainy season is a major determinant of Dengue, driven by a combination of climate or environmental factors for transmission in both urban and rural areas. Dengue transmission increases during the rainy season in Sri Lanka, starting from late May and highest in July, due to increasing dengue vector mosquito breeding grounds. Sri Lanka has maintained a high level of dengue control and prevention and successfully overcome outbreaks with more intensive integrated actions. However, the number of cases has been rising since the year 2000, and every three to four years, a large outbreak has been identified. Thus, leading to an increase in the baseline.

In 2023, the highest number of cases were identified, as well as high prevalence areas; Western province, Galle, Matara, Jaffna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Kalmunai, Kandy, Kegalle, Ratnapura and Kurunegala, Puttalam. It was observed that the number of cases had reduced during the period of Covid-19 during the closure of schools. Therefore, highlighting higher risk of acquiring dengue in school settings. Sustainable vector control is identified as key strategies in effective outbreak preparedness. A study done in Sri Lanka in 2022, found that school closures had the most significant impact on the dengue case numbers (Ariyaratne et al., 2022). Aedes mosquitoes have been shown to engage in multiple feeding, which would be facilitated in a school environment due to the close proximity of hosts to one another (Ariyaratne et al., 2022). Although the importance of children gathering in schools in the transmission of dengue has not been previously studied, in one study in Mexico, it was shown that an intensive campaign in schools to eliminate mosquito breeding sites reduced the dengue incidence by 45% in the schools, while there was an 81% increase in the incidence in the country (Hernandez-Suarez CM, Mendoza-Cano O, 2016). Since these data show that schools are probably one of the most important places of dengue transmission in the community, the behavioral drivers of dengue prevention and control practices should be identified in order to identify targeted interventions, thus more focus should be given to vector control activities in schools to reduce the burden of dengue.

Thus, UNICEF Sri Lanka seeks a company/team to support the research on behavioral drivers and root causes of dengue control and prevention practices among the school context, to inform strategies that can be used to overcome possible dengue outbreaks in Sri Lanka