Vector-borne transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi (VBTTc) is dependent on the concomitant interaction between biological and environmental hazard over the entire landscape, and human vulnerability. Representations and practices of health-disease-care-seeking and territorial appropriation and use were analyzed for VBTTc in a qualitative ethnographic study in the Zoh-Laguna landscape, Campeche, Mexico. In-depth interviews and participatory observation explored representations and practices regarding ethno-ecological knowledge related to vector-transmission, health-disease-care-seeking, and land use processes. The population has a broad knowledge of biting insects, which they believe are all most abundant in the rainy season; the community´s proximity to natural areas is perceived as a barrier to control their abundance. Triatomines are mostly recognized by men, who have detailed knowledge regarding their occurrence and association with mammals in non-domestic fragments, where they report being bitten. Women emphasize the dermal consequences of triatomine bites, but have little knowledge about the disease. Triatomine bites and the chinchoma are “normalized” events which are treated using home remedies, if at all. The neglected condition of Chagas disease in Mexican public health policies, livelihoods which are dependent on primary production, and gender-related knowledge (or lack thereof) are structural circumstances which influence the environment and inhabitants´ living conditions; in turn, these trigger triatomine-human contact. The most important landscape practices producing vulnerability are the activities and mobility within and between landscape fragments causing greater exposure of inhabitants primarily in the dry season. A landscape approach to understanding vulnerability components of VBTTc from health-disease-care-seeking perspectives and based on territorial appropriation and use, is essential where there is continuous movement of vectors between and within all habitats. An understanding of the structural factors which motivate the population´s perceptions, beliefs, and practices and which create and maintain vulnerability is essential to develop culturally relevant and sustainable community-based VBTTc prevention and control.

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Moisés Ocampo-Torres, M.C., (1) Héctor Javier Sánchez-Pérez, Dr. en C., (1) Austreberta Nazar-Beutelspacher, Dr. en C., (1) Adriana Elena Castro-Ramírez, M. en C., (1) Bulmaro Cordero-Ocampo, M.C. (2) Este trabajo fue realizado gracias al apoyo financiero del Programa de Apoyo a Tesis de Maestría y al Departamento de Vinculación de El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Chiapas, México.(1) El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Unidad San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México.(2) Jefatura de Enseñanza del Hospital General "I", Secretaría de Salud, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México. Vaginal and perianal samples were taken for GBS detection by bacteriological culture. Identification of groups and serotypes was performed using latex agglutination. The analysis of factors associated with colonization was done using chi-squared tests and log-linear modeling. Results. GBS colonization was found in 8.6% (95% CI 6.8 -10.5) of study subjects. Women with the greatest likelihood of colonization were those with ≥5 pregnancies, residents of counties with high levels of poverty, working outside the home, and living in homes in which the head of household worked in agriculture (26.8%, OR= 7.25, 95% CI 1.83 -28.67). Conclusions. In the study area, it is necessary that actions aiming to prevent and control infections by GBS be directed principally at those groups of women with the highest probability of colonization, in order to diminish the perinatal transmission of GBS.