Elli Leontsini

Associate

Academic Degrees

MD, University of Athens, Greece 1983; MPH, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1988

School/Organization
Bloomberg School of Public Health

Department / Division
International Health
Social and Behavioral Interventions Program

Departmental Address
E5034 Hygiene

Email: eleontsi@jhsph.edu
Phone: 410 955 3859
Fax: 410 502 6733

Research and Professional Experience

• Understand social, cultural and behavioral factors in community-based disease prevention and control in resource-poor settings.  Utilize social, cultural and behavioral information in the design of community-based public health interventions.  Develop and test community-based health behavior change strategies.  Involve local communities, private voluntary organizations, national level institutions and other social actors in all aspects of public health programs.

Honors and Awards

Research Projects
Social and behavioral aspects of taenia solium and cysticercosis control in rural endemic Peru
Focus is on reducing contact of people or of their domestic pigs with infected feces present in and around the rural household, by improving corraling and defecating behaviors, as well as on promoting improved careseeking behaviors of householders already infected with taenia or owning...



Selected Publications

• Harvey SA, Olortegui MP, Leontsini E, Winch PJ.  “They’ll change what they’re doing if they know that you’re watching”: Measuring reactivity in health behavior due to an observer’s presence – A case from the Peruvian Amazon.  Field Methods 21(1):3-25, 2009 DOI 10.1177 / 1525822X08323987.

• Winch P, Leontsini E, Lloyd LS.  Chapter XI: Community Control of Dengue Vectors.  In: SB Halstead (editor) Dengue. Tropical Medicine – Science and Practice Book Series Vol 5, London: Imperial College Press (pub) Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. (dist), 2008.

• Harvey SA, Olórtegui MP, Leontsini E, Bustamante Pezo C, Olórtegui Pezantes LM, Winch PJ.  “The whole world will be able to see us”: Determining the characteristics of a culturally appropriate bed net among mestizo communities of the Peruvian Amazon.  American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 79(6):834-838, 2008.

• Oswald WE, Hunter GC, Lescano AG, Cabrera L,  Leontsini E, Pan W, Paz Soldan V, Gilman RH.  Direct observation of hygiene in a Peruvian shantytown: Not enough handwashing and too little water.  Tropical Medicine and International Health 13(11):1421-1428, 2008.

• Konda KA,  Lescano AG, Leontsini E, Fernandez P, Klausner JD, Coates TJ, Cáceres CF and the NIMH Collaborative STD/HIV Prevention Trial.  High rates of sex with men among high-risk, heterosexually-identified men in low-income, coastal Peru.  AIDS and Behavior 12(3):483-491, 2008 DOI 10.1007/s10461-007-9221-z.

• Naçi, H, Leontsini E, Baker TD. One Island, Two Parts, Shared Aspirations. Harvard Health Policy Review 8(2):108-110, 2007

• Leontsini, E. Software Review: Dengue, anon. (2005). London:Wellcome Trust, Distributed by CAB International, Wallingford, UK. Annals of Tropical Medicine & Parasitology 100(1): 91-93, 2006

• Leontsini E, Rosenbaum J, Báez C, Solís A, Valera C, Gonzálvez G. NEgociación de PRÁcticas Mejoradas - NEPRÁM (Negotiation of Improved Practices): The development of a national behaviour change strategy for community-based prevention of dengue fever in the Dominican Republic. Dengue Bulletin 28(Suppl.): 22-25, 2004.

• Case Study Writer and Editorial Reviewer In: Parks W and Lloyd L. Planning Social Mobilization and Communication for Dengue Fever Prevention and Control: A step-by-step Guide Geneva; World Health Organization, 2004

• Malouin R, Winch P, Leontsini E, Glass G, Simon D, Hayes EB, Schwartz BS. Longitudinal evaluation of an educational intervention for preventing tick bites in an area with endemic Lyme disease in Baltimore County, Maryland. American Journal of Epidemiology 157:1039-1051, 2003.

• Harvey SA, Winch PJ, Leontsini E, Torres G C, López R S, Gilman RH, Oberhelman RA. Domestic poultry raising practices in a Peruvian shantytown: implications for control of Campylobacter jejuni associated diarrhea. Acta Tropica 86(1):41-54, 2003.

• Winch PJ, Leontsini E, Rigau-Perez JG, Ruiz-Perez M, Clark GG and Gubler DJ. Community-based dengue prevention programs in Puerto Rico: Impact on knowledge, behavior and residential mosquito infestation. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 67(4):363-370, 2002. Nominated for the Charles C. Shepard Science Award June 9, 2003, and awarded the James H. Nakano Citation June 16, 2003, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.

• Fernández EA, Leontsini E, Sherman C, Chan AST, Reyes CE, Lozano RC, Fuentes BA, Nichter M and Winch PJ. Trial of a community based behavioural intervention to decrease infestation of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in cement washbasins in El Progreso, Honduras. Acta Tropica 70:171-183, 1998.

• Chan AST, Sherman C, Lozano RC , Fernández EA, Winch PJ and Leontsini E. Development of an indicator to evaluate the impact of a community based Aedes aegypti control intervention on improved cleaning of water storage containers by householders. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, 92(3):317 329, 1998.

• Sherman C, Fernández EA, Chan AST, Lozano RC, Leontsini E and Winch PJ. La Untadita: A procedure for maintaining washbasins and drums free of Aedes aegypti based on modification of existing practices. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 58(2):257-262, 1998.

• Leontsini E. Debate. In: Seven theses on health education for community participation, by Briceño-León R. Cadernos de Saúde Pública, Rio de Janeiro, 12(1):26-27,1996. Winch P J, Lloyd L S, Hoemeke L, Leontsini E. Vector Control at the household level: an analysis of its impact on women. Acta Tropica, (56):327-339, 1994.

• Leontsini E, Gil B E, Kendall C, Clark G G. Effect of a community-based Aedes aegypti control programme on mosquito larval production sites in El Progreso, Honduras. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, (87):267-271, 1993.

• Elli Leontsini, Enrique Gil, Carl Kendall and Gary G. Clark. "Effect of a Community-based Aedes aegypti Control Program on Mosquito Larval Production Sites in El Progreso, Honduras. In "Dengue, A Worldwide Problem, a Common Strategy" edited by Halstead S B and Gómez-Dantés H, pp 265-277, November 1992.

• Kendall C, Hudelson P, Leontsini E, Winch P, Lloyd L, Cruz F. Urbanization, Dengue and the Health Transition: Anthropological Contributions to International Health. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 5(3):257-268, 1991.

• Hudelson P, Kendall C, Leontsini E, Pelto P. Using formal methods and ANTHROPAC to design dengue fever health education materials. WHO Dengue Newsletter (16):48-57, 1991.

• Kendall C, Leontsini E, Gil E, Cruz F, Hudelson P, Pelto P. Exploratory Ethnoentomology: Using ANTHROPAC to design a dengue fever control program. Cultural Anthropology Methods Newsletter 2(2):11-12, 1990.

• Winch P, Kendall C, Leontsini E. Community Participation in Aedes aegypti Control Programs. In: Uren MF, Blok J, Manderson LH (editors). Arbovirus Research in Australia. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland Medical School, 1990.

• Bolton P, Kendall C, Leontsini E, Whitaker C. Health Technologies and Women of the Developing World. In: Women and International Development Annual ed. by Rita S. Gallin, Marilyn Aronoff and Anne Ferguson. Vol 1, Nov 1989, Westview Press.

• Leontsini E, Brown T, Biddison WE. Physical and Functional Association of the T Cell Receptor and the T3 Molecular complex on Cytotoxic T Cell Clones that are Differentially Inhibitable by Anti-T3 Antibodies. Cellular Immunology. 1986;102:21-32.