Combining house screening and odour-baited mosquito traps for sustainable control of malaria transmission in low income communities dominated by Anopheles Funestus

Tanzania has cut malaria burden by over 50% since 2008, primarily using insecticide-treated nets and effective medicines, but numerous challenges remain. However, in south-eastern Tanzania, pyrethroid-resistant Anopheles funestus (mediating >80% of transmission,) and outdoor-biting Anopheles arabiensis, are compromising the gains. The situation is worse for low-income families, who despite the improvements of livelihoods across Tanzania, many low-income households still live in poorly-constructed houses with gaps on eaves, doors and windows. To achieve the 2020 national target of 2% prevalence, and thereafter elimination, Tanzania urgently needs complementary tools. House-screening can reduce indoor-biting and malaria burden, but is hardly scaled-up because available epidemiological evidence is considered inadequate, and diverted mosquitoes can bite others. Besides, full house-screening (of windows, eaves and doors) is impractical where rural households keep doors open in evenings. Introducing effective mosquito trapping in these settings could potentially increase households-level and communal-level protection even for non-users. Indeed, odour-baited traps targeting An. funestus previously reduced malaria prevalence by 28.9% in western Kenya.

Wellcome Trust - Grants awarded

Vector Control

Jul 2019 — Dec 2022

$134,434

Tanzania

Baits and traps for vector control in malaria