Beyond buzzing: mosquito watching stimulates malaria bednet use—a household-based cluster-randomized controlled assessor blind educational trial

Abstract

Malaria remains a severe health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, with approximately one million deaths and 365 million cases each year. In terms of malaria control, insecticide-treated bednets are an effective tool, and many organizations have distributed free or highly subsidized bednets in malaria endemic areas. Nevertheless, some recipients do not use bednets because of social, environmental or cultural factors. Making vulnerable populations aware of the presence of mosquitoes may improve bednet use among people owning but not using a bednet. We hypothesized that showing freshly collected mosquitoes from the vicinity could improve bednet use in households owning but not using bednets. To test this hypothesis, we applied a household-based cluster-randomized controlled assessor blind educational trial. Indirect observation of mosquitoes, via educational leaflets, produced no change in bednet use, while showing freshly captured mosquitoes led to a 13-fold increase in bednet use. Our results suggest that direct observation of freshly captured mosquitoes can encourage bednet use and may potentially improve effective bednet coverage for malaria control and elimination.

Long lasting insecticidal net use and its associated factors in Limmu Seka District, South West Ethiopia

“…For instance, in this study the role of mosquitoes in malaria transmission was recognized only by 67% of respondents which was lower than the study report in nine malaria prone districts of Ethiopia in which 81% recognized malaria transmission by mosquitoes [ 19 ]. Low educational level, external factors of the households participating in health education, less exposure to education that Health Extension Workers provide and less access to health information may be possible reasons [ 9 ].…”

“…Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets ownership will have little impact on the burden of malaria unless people sleep under the net and many large-scale programs have encountered challenges in the consistent use of LLINs [ 8 ]. Although an increasing number of studies have documented LLINs ownership, only a few studies have systematically investigated the actual usage of LLINs which has a greater influence on malaria morbidity trends [ 9 ]. Consistent use of LLIN can reduce malaria mortality by 20% and morbidity by 50% in children less than 5 years of age.…”

Population Dynamics of Anopheles albimanus (Diptera: Culicidae) at Ipetí-Guna, a Village in a Region Targeted for Malaria Elimination in Panamá

“…Meanwhile, in resonant generational cycles [86,87,88], environmental impacts on population size have a build-up time to be observed in the adult mosquito population and can be enhanced by a positive autocorrelation structure in the environment, something that could also explain the 5 month lag for the impact of temperature in aquatic mosquito, i.e., larvae, population growth, as has been observed in other mosquito vectors of pathogens [89]. These relationships with environmental factors are also important to design interventions aimed at reducing the contact between the Gunas and malaria vector populations, since, for example, in Sub-Saharan Africa it is known that adherence to use insecticide treated nets is influenced by perceived mosquito nuisance [90] and the concomitant perceived malaria transmission risk [91]. In that sense, the best timing for interventions aimed at reducing contact between humans and vectors, or suppressing vector populations, will be during the wet season, for example, three months after peaks in NDVI, which are correlated with peaks in host-seeking mosquitoes, as shown in this study.…”

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards malaria prevention among school children aged 5 -14 years in sub-saharan Africa - a review of literature

“…[19] Similarly, only 37% of schoolchildren aged 5-14 years in Zambia used the insecticide treated net before malaria campaign; the use of insecticide treated net increased from 37% to 67% after campaign. [27] Low use of Insecticide treated nets in school-aged children (OR: 0.37) has also been reported in Cameroon, [21] Malawi, [28] Nigeria [24] and recently in Liberia. [29] As children are becoming older and they are usually sleeping in separate bedrooms from the parents' with less parental control, their use of insecticide treated nets when they are sleeping is low; therefore strengthening health education on malaria prevention practices among schoolchildren would be potential way of prevention of malaria among school children.…”

“…Studies have been conducted in various countries of sub-Saharan Africa revealed the knowledge, attitude and practice of school children towards malaria. The reviewed studies were conducted in Cameroon, [21,22] Ethiopia, [23] Nigeria, [16,24,25] Tanzania, [26] Kenya, [7] Zambia, [27] Zimbabwe, [20] Malawi, [19,28] Liberia, [29] Ghana. [30] However, no study has been conducted in Rwanda regarding knowledge, attitude and practices of schoolchildren towards malaria prevention.…”