What to know
- Presentation Day/Time: Wednesday, April 23, 11:30–11:45 am
- Presenters: Elizabeth Sajewski, PhD, MS and Ria Ghai, PhD, EIS officers assigned to the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases
TED-Style Talks
In Uganda, since the first reported cases in July 2024, mpox has followed communities where sex work is common – along trucking routes, to fishing villages, then to cities, where infection took hold in the informal labor sector, in boda boda drivers, and bar staff and patrons.
During the course of Elizabeth's (October 21 to November 18 2024) and Ria's (November 14 to December 15 2024) mpox deployments in Uganda, the outbreak grew exponentially, and female sex workers became increasingly central to discussions about transmission, messaging, and public health interventions. It was the voices representing this varied group, voices of peer representatives of female sex workers in city council meetings, insights from partners who had worked closely with sex worker populations, and decades of experiences with PEPFAR programming in the country that gradually shifted conversations from challenges to plans of action.
In our talk, we will share behind-the-scenes efforts on how these communities were reached and engaged in a manner that prevented stigma, changed our approach to the outbreak, and improved our practice as epidemiologists.
Abstract Category: TED-Style Talks