Semi-field evaluation of electrocuting eave tubes for the control of endophagic mosquitoes in south-east Tanzania.

BACKGROUND: Eave spaces are major entry points through which malaria vectors enter houses. Interventions that target mosquitoes at the eaves have recently been developed. However, most of these interventions are based on insecticides for which resistance has been reported. Here we evaluated the efficacy of mosquito electrocuting eave tubes (MEETs) against Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto (An. gambiae s.s.) and Anopheles funestus s.s. under semi-field conditions. METHODS: Experiments were conducted in two semi-field chambers, each containing one experimental hut. Six electrocuting eave tubes were installed in each hut to assess their impact on laboratory-reared An. gambiae s.s. and An. funestus s.s.. Each species was assessed separately over 10 nights by releasing 200 unfed females per night into each chamber. One volunteer slept in each hut from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Mosquitoes were collected indoors and outdoors using mouth and Prokopack aspirators. RESULTS: The placement of MEETs significantly reduced the nightly An. gambiae s.s. indoor and outdoor biting, by 21.1% and 37.4%, respectively. Indoor-biting An. funestus s.s. were reduced by 87.5% while outdoor-biting numbers of An. funestus s.s. declined by 10.4%. CONCLUSIONS: MEETs represent a promising tool for controlling mosquitoes at the point of house entry. Further validation of their potential under natural field conditions is necessary. Several advantages over insecticide-based eave tubes are indicated and discussed in this article.

Lessons on malaria vector control from Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sneezy, and Sleepy.

Despite significant advancements in vector control, malaria continues to expand and claim hundreds of thousands of lives annually. A 1943 animated film by Walt Disney remains a poignant reminder of the ongoing challenge and a good example of interventions that have fallen off the pages of history. It underscores two key points. First, the importance of proactive mosquito control measures and the need for comprehensive strategies targeting mosquitoes at every stage of their life cycle. Second, collaboration between all stakeholders and sustained investment are vital for success in malaria control. Manuel Llu-beras is a public health entomologist renowned globally for assembling the business architecture of mosquito population management initiatives in four continents. He crafted the first WHO Operational Manual for Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) and played a pivotal role in designing the structure of the IRS campaign of the US President's Malaria Initiative and several mineral extraction companies. He served in several post-event emergency mosquito control operations. Prior to establishing Mosquito Den LLC in 2021, he was Executive Director for Public Health for H.D. Hudson Manufacturing from 1996 through 2022. He served as medical entomologist for the US Navy a dozen years. His contributions to public health entomology were recognised with the Global Trade Award from the Global Trade Chamber, the Meritorious Service Award of the American Mosquito Control Association, and two nominations for the Rear Admiral Charles S. Stevenson Award for excellence in US Navy Preventive Medicine.

To assess whether indoor residual spraying can provide additional protection against clinical malaria over current best practice of long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets in The Gambia: study protocol for a two-armed cluster-randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: Recently, there has been mounting interest in scaling-up vector control against malaria in Africa. It needs to be determined if indoor residual spraying (IRS with DDT) will provide significant marginal protection against malaria over current best practice of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and prompt treatment in a controlled trial, given that DDT is currently the most persistent insecticide for IRS. METHODS: A 2 armed cluster-randomised controlled trial will be conducted to assess whether DDT IRS and LLINs combined provide better protection against clinical malaria in children than LLINs alone in rural Gambia. Each cluster will be a village, or a group of small adjacent villages; all clusters will receive LLINs and half will receive IRS in addition. Study children, aged 6 months to 13 years, will be enrolled from all clusters and followed for clinical malaria using passive case detection to estimate malaria incidence for 2 malaria transmission seasons in 2010 and 2011. This will be the primary endpoint. Exposure to malaria parasites will be assessed using light and exit traps followed by detection of Anopheles gambiae species and sporozoite infection. Study children will be surveyed at the end of each transmission season to estimate the prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum infection and the prevalence of anaemia. DISCUSSION: Practical issues concerning intervention implementation, as well as the potential benefits and risks of the study, are discussed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN01738840 - Spraying And Nets Towards malaria Elimination (SANTE).

Difficulties in organizing first indoor spray programme against malaria in Angola under the President's Malaria Initiative.

PROBLEM: Successful attempts to control malaria require understanding of its complex transmission patterns. Unfortunately malaria transmission in Africa is often assessed using routine administrative reports from local health units, which are plagued by sporadic reporting failures. In addition, the lack of microscopic analyses of blood slides in these units introduces the effects of many confounding diseases. APPROACH: The danger of using administrative reports was illustrated in Angola, the first country in which malaria control was attempted under the President's Malaria Initiative, a development programme of the Government of the United States of America. LOCAL SETTING: Each local health unit submitted monthly reports indicating the number of suspected malaria cases to their municipality. The identification of the disease was based on clinical diagnoses, without microscopic examination of blood slides. The municipal and provincial reports were then passed on to the national headquarters, with sporadic reporting lapses at all levels. RELEVANT CHANGES: After the control effort was completed, the defective municipal reports were corrected by summarizing only the data from those health units which had submitted reports for every month during the evaluation period. LESSONS LEARNED: The corrected data, supplemented by additional observations on rainfall and mosquito habitats, indicated that there had probably been no malaria transmission before starting the control operations. Thus the expensive malaria control effort had been wasted. It is unfortunate that WHO is also trying to plan and evaluate its malaria control efforts based on these same kinds of inadequate administrative reports.