There are significant knowledge gaps relating to Leptospirosis not only in New Zealand but also t... more There are significant knowledge gaps relating to Leptospirosis not only in New Zealand but also the world. Given the current increase in Leptospirosis notifications in New Zealand it is very prudent to identify changing risk factors, identify infecting species and their sources. Moreover long term follow up has been needed for this disease for decades. I am very encouraged to see this included in the project and fully support such an undertaking.
BACKGROUND In Aotearoa New Zealand, 90% of patients with notified leptospirosis (a zoonotic bacte... more BACKGROUND In Aotearoa New Zealand, 90% of patients with notified leptospirosis (a zoonotic bacterial disease) have been men working in agricultural industries. However, since 2008, the epidemiology of notified cases has been gradually changing, that is, more women are affected; there are more cases associated with occupations traditionally not considered high risk in New Zealand; infecting serovars have changed; and many patients experience symptoms long after infection. We hypothesized that there is a shift in leptospirosis transmission patterns with substantial burden on affected patients and their families. OBJECTIVE In this paper, we aimed to describe the protocols used to conduct a nationwide case-control study to update leptospirosis risk factors and follow-up studies to assess the burden and sources of leptospirosis in New Zealand. METHODS This study used a mixed methods approach, comprising a case-control study and 4 substudies that involved cases only. Cases were recruited nationwide, and controls were frequency matched by sex and rurality. All participants were administered a case-control questionnaire (study 1), with cases being interviewed again at least 6 months after the initial survey (study 2). A subset of cases from two high-risk populations, that is, farmers and abattoir workers, were further engaged in a semistructured interview (study 3). Some cases with regular animal exposure had their in-contact animals (livestock for blood and urine and wildlife for kidney) and environment (soil, mud, and water) sampled (study 4). Patients from selected health clinics suspected of leptospirosis also had blood and urine samples collected (study 5). In studies 4 and 5, blood samples were tested using the microscopic agglutination test to test for antibody titers against Leptospira serovars Hardjo type bovis, Ballum, Tarassovi, Pomona, and Copenhageni. Blood, urine, and environmental samples were also tested for pathogenic Leptospira DNA using polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS Participants were recruited between July 22, 2019, and January 31, 2022, and data collection for the study has concluded. In total, 95 cases (July 25, 2019, to April 13, 2022) and 300 controls (October 19, 2019, to January 26, 2022) were interviewed for the case-control study; 91 cases participated in the follow-up interviews (July 9, 2020, to October 25, 2022); 13 cases participated in the semistructured interviews (January 26, 2021, to January 19, 2022); and 4 cases had their in-contact animals and environments sampled (October 28, 2020, and July 29, 2021). Data analysis for study 3 has concluded and 2 manuscripts have been drafted for review. Results of the other studies are being analyzed and the specific results of each study will be published as individual manuscripts.. CONCLUSIONS The methods used in this study may provide a basis for future epidemiological studies of infectious diseases. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/47900
Background: With increasing demand for red meat in Tanzania comes heightened potential for zoonot... more Background: With increasing demand for red meat in Tanzania comes heightened potential for zoonotic infections in animals and humans that disproportionately affect poor communities. A range of frontline government employees work to protect public health, providing services for people engaged in animal-based livelihoods (livestock owners and butchers), and enforcing meat safety and food premises standards. In contrast to literature which emphasises the inadequacy of extension support and food safety policy implementation in low-and middle-income countries, this paper foregrounds the 'street-level diplomacy' deployed by frontline actors operating in challenging contexts. Methods: This research is based on semi-structured interviews with 61 government employees, including livestock extension officers/meat inspectors and health officers, across 10 randomly-selected rural and urban wards. Results: Frontline actors combined formal and informal strategies including the leveraging of formal policy texts and relationships with other state employees, remaining flexible and recognising that poverty constrained people's ability to comply with health regulations. They emphasised the need to work with livestock keepers and butchers to build their knowledge to self-regulate and to work collaboratively to ensure meat safety. Remaining adaptive and being hesitant to act punitively unless absolutely necessary cultivated trust and positive relations, making those engaged in animal-based livelihoods more open to learning from and cooperating with extension officers and inspectors. This may result in higher levels of meat safety than might be the case if frontline actors stringently enforced regulations. Conclusion: The current tendency to view frontline actors' partial enforcement of meat safety regulations as a failure obscures the creative and proactive ways in which they seek to ensure meat safety in a context of limited resources. Their application of 'street-level diplomacy' enables them to be sensitive to local socioeconomic realities, to respect local social norms and expectations and to build support for health safety interventions when necessary. More explicitly acknowledging the role of trust and positive state-society relations and the diplomatic skills deployed by frontline actors as a formal part of their inspection duties offers new perspectives and enhanced understandings on the complicated nature of their work and what might be done to support them.
One of the key principles for effective aid programmes is that recipient agencies exert high degr... more One of the key principles for effective aid programmes is that recipient agencies exert high degrees of ownership over the agendas, resources, systems and outcomes of aid activities. Sovereign recipient states should lead the process of development. Yet despite this well-recognised principle, the realities of aid delivery mean that ownership is often compromised in practice. Aid, Ownership and Development examines this 'inverse sovereignty' hypothesis with regard to the states and territories of the Pacific Island region. It provides an initial overview of different aid 'regimes' over time, maps aid flows in the region, and analyses the concept of sovereignty. Drawing on a rich range of primary research by the authors and contributors, it focuses on the agencies and individuals within the Pacific Islands who administer and apply aid projects and programmes. There is indeed evidence for the inverse sovereignty effect; particularly when island states and their small and stretched bureaucracies have to deal with complex and burdensome donor reporting requirements, management systems, consultative meetings and differing strategic priorities. This book outlines important ways in which Pacific agencies have proved adept not only at meeting these requirements, but also asserting their own priorities and ways of operating. It concludes that global agreements, such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005 and the recently launched Sustainable Development Goals, can be effective means for Pacific agencies to both hold donors to account and also to recognise and exercise their own sovereignty. John Overton is a geographer who has worked on development issues and the Pacific region for over thirty years. His Pacific education began with a position at the University of the South Pacific in the mid-1980s and has continued through working with many students and colleagues from the Pacific Island region. He
Wallis and Futuna are a French overseas collectivity in Oceania. In 1969, the French state formal... more Wallis and Futuna are a French overseas collectivity in Oceania. In 1969, the French state formally ceded responsibility for the territory's primary education to the Catholic mission and reimburses related expenses. Against this backdrop, this article uses the negotiations about primary education between these two non-sovereign island territories and their colonial metropole to explore islanders' views of the relationship. We conducted interviews with eight representatives of local institutions associated with primary education and we analyzed relevant official agreements. Our analysis suggests that, from the islanders' perspective, the negotiations with metropolitan France about policies and funding for primary education are driven by different identities located within a shared national identity. We find these identities are not merely different, but complementary in a non-hierarchical fashion. We also find that these identities seem to be mutually constituted between metropolitans and islanders through negotiations that are often adversarial and—from the islanders' view—predicated on detailed knowledge of the history of these negotiations. In addition, the resulting education policies regularly see primary schools receiving unequal treatment in comparison to schools in metropolitan France. However, in counterweight, islanders can also succeed in giving unequal treatment to metropolitan regulations by bending them to suit local interests or values.
This article provides a comparative assessment of social work field practice in the two most esta... more This article provides a comparative assessment of social work field practice in the two most established schools of social work in the Caribbean (University of the West Indies-Mona and the University of Guyana) and the School of Social Work in Zimbabwe. The research is based on a self-administered questionnaire which gathered details on supervision and instruction procedures of the respective practicum in each institution. Analysis of the responses. of the sample provide information on the field practice conferences, delivery of supervisory functions, the role of the Faculty or School Coordinator and the value of student assignments. A wide-ranging set of suggestions for improving students' practicum experience are then made.
There are significant knowledge gaps relating to Leptospirosis not only in New Zealand but also t... more There are significant knowledge gaps relating to Leptospirosis not only in New Zealand but also the world. Given the current increase in Leptospirosis notifications in New Zealand it is very prudent to identify changing risk factors, identify infecting species and their sources. Moreover long term follow up has been needed for this disease for decades. I am very encouraged to see this included in the project and fully support such an undertaking.
BACKGROUND In Aotearoa New Zealand, 90% of patients with notified leptospirosis (a zoonotic bacte... more BACKGROUND In Aotearoa New Zealand, 90% of patients with notified leptospirosis (a zoonotic bacterial disease) have been men working in agricultural industries. However, since 2008, the epidemiology of notified cases has been gradually changing, that is, more women are affected; there are more cases associated with occupations traditionally not considered high risk in New Zealand; infecting serovars have changed; and many patients experience symptoms long after infection. We hypothesized that there is a shift in leptospirosis transmission patterns with substantial burden on affected patients and their families. OBJECTIVE In this paper, we aimed to describe the protocols used to conduct a nationwide case-control study to update leptospirosis risk factors and follow-up studies to assess the burden and sources of leptospirosis in New Zealand. METHODS This study used a mixed methods approach, comprising a case-control study and 4 substudies that involved cases only. Cases were recruited nationwide, and controls were frequency matched by sex and rurality. All participants were administered a case-control questionnaire (study 1), with cases being interviewed again at least 6 months after the initial survey (study 2). A subset of cases from two high-risk populations, that is, farmers and abattoir workers, were further engaged in a semistructured interview (study 3). Some cases with regular animal exposure had their in-contact animals (livestock for blood and urine and wildlife for kidney) and environment (soil, mud, and water) sampled (study 4). Patients from selected health clinics suspected of leptospirosis also had blood and urine samples collected (study 5). In studies 4 and 5, blood samples were tested using the microscopic agglutination test to test for antibody titers against Leptospira serovars Hardjo type bovis, Ballum, Tarassovi, Pomona, and Copenhageni. Blood, urine, and environmental samples were also tested for pathogenic Leptospira DNA using polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS Participants were recruited between July 22, 2019, and January 31, 2022, and data collection for the study has concluded. In total, 95 cases (July 25, 2019, to April 13, 2022) and 300 controls (October 19, 2019, to January 26, 2022) were interviewed for the case-control study; 91 cases participated in the follow-up interviews (July 9, 2020, to October 25, 2022); 13 cases participated in the semistructured interviews (January 26, 2021, to January 19, 2022); and 4 cases had their in-contact animals and environments sampled (October 28, 2020, and July 29, 2021). Data analysis for study 3 has concluded and 2 manuscripts have been drafted for review. Results of the other studies are being analyzed and the specific results of each study will be published as individual manuscripts.. CONCLUSIONS The methods used in this study may provide a basis for future epidemiological studies of infectious diseases. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/47900
Background: With increasing demand for red meat in Tanzania comes heightened potential for zoonot... more Background: With increasing demand for red meat in Tanzania comes heightened potential for zoonotic infections in animals and humans that disproportionately affect poor communities. A range of frontline government employees work to protect public health, providing services for people engaged in animal-based livelihoods (livestock owners and butchers), and enforcing meat safety and food premises standards. In contrast to literature which emphasises the inadequacy of extension support and food safety policy implementation in low-and middle-income countries, this paper foregrounds the 'street-level diplomacy' deployed by frontline actors operating in challenging contexts. Methods: This research is based on semi-structured interviews with 61 government employees, including livestock extension officers/meat inspectors and health officers, across 10 randomly-selected rural and urban wards. Results: Frontline actors combined formal and informal strategies including the leveraging of formal policy texts and relationships with other state employees, remaining flexible and recognising that poverty constrained people's ability to comply with health regulations. They emphasised the need to work with livestock keepers and butchers to build their knowledge to self-regulate and to work collaboratively to ensure meat safety. Remaining adaptive and being hesitant to act punitively unless absolutely necessary cultivated trust and positive relations, making those engaged in animal-based livelihoods more open to learning from and cooperating with extension officers and inspectors. This may result in higher levels of meat safety than might be the case if frontline actors stringently enforced regulations. Conclusion: The current tendency to view frontline actors' partial enforcement of meat safety regulations as a failure obscures the creative and proactive ways in which they seek to ensure meat safety in a context of limited resources. Their application of 'street-level diplomacy' enables them to be sensitive to local socioeconomic realities, to respect local social norms and expectations and to build support for health safety interventions when necessary. More explicitly acknowledging the role of trust and positive state-society relations and the diplomatic skills deployed by frontline actors as a formal part of their inspection duties offers new perspectives and enhanced understandings on the complicated nature of their work and what might be done to support them.
One of the key principles for effective aid programmes is that recipient agencies exert high degr... more One of the key principles for effective aid programmes is that recipient agencies exert high degrees of ownership over the agendas, resources, systems and outcomes of aid activities. Sovereign recipient states should lead the process of development. Yet despite this well-recognised principle, the realities of aid delivery mean that ownership is often compromised in practice. Aid, Ownership and Development examines this 'inverse sovereignty' hypothesis with regard to the states and territories of the Pacific Island region. It provides an initial overview of different aid 'regimes' over time, maps aid flows in the region, and analyses the concept of sovereignty. Drawing on a rich range of primary research by the authors and contributors, it focuses on the agencies and individuals within the Pacific Islands who administer and apply aid projects and programmes. There is indeed evidence for the inverse sovereignty effect; particularly when island states and their small and stretched bureaucracies have to deal with complex and burdensome donor reporting requirements, management systems, consultative meetings and differing strategic priorities. This book outlines important ways in which Pacific agencies have proved adept not only at meeting these requirements, but also asserting their own priorities and ways of operating. It concludes that global agreements, such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005 and the recently launched Sustainable Development Goals, can be effective means for Pacific agencies to both hold donors to account and also to recognise and exercise their own sovereignty. John Overton is a geographer who has worked on development issues and the Pacific region for over thirty years. His Pacific education began with a position at the University of the South Pacific in the mid-1980s and has continued through working with many students and colleagues from the Pacific Island region. He
Wallis and Futuna are a French overseas collectivity in Oceania. In 1969, the French state formal... more Wallis and Futuna are a French overseas collectivity in Oceania. In 1969, the French state formally ceded responsibility for the territory's primary education to the Catholic mission and reimburses related expenses. Against this backdrop, this article uses the negotiations about primary education between these two non-sovereign island territories and their colonial metropole to explore islanders' views of the relationship. We conducted interviews with eight representatives of local institutions associated with primary education and we analyzed relevant official agreements. Our analysis suggests that, from the islanders' perspective, the negotiations with metropolitan France about policies and funding for primary education are driven by different identities located within a shared national identity. We find these identities are not merely different, but complementary in a non-hierarchical fashion. We also find that these identities seem to be mutually constituted between metropolitans and islanders through negotiations that are often adversarial and—from the islanders' view—predicated on detailed knowledge of the history of these negotiations. In addition, the resulting education policies regularly see primary schools receiving unequal treatment in comparison to schools in metropolitan France. However, in counterweight, islanders can also succeed in giving unequal treatment to metropolitan regulations by bending them to suit local interests or values.
This article provides a comparative assessment of social work field practice in the two most esta... more This article provides a comparative assessment of social work field practice in the two most established schools of social work in the Caribbean (University of the West Indies-Mona and the University of Guyana) and the School of Social Work in Zimbabwe. The research is based on a self-administered questionnaire which gathered details on supervision and instruction procedures of the respective practicum in each institution. Analysis of the responses. of the sample provide information on the field practice conferences, delivery of supervisory functions, the role of the Faculty or School Coordinator and the value of student assignments. A wide-ranging set of suggestions for improving students' practicum experience are then made.
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Papers by Gerard Prinsen