Abstract
BackgroundMosquitoes are vectors for many diseases such as malaria. Insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying of insecticides are the principal malaria vector control tools used to prevent malaria in the tropics. Other interventions aim at reducing man-vector contact. For example, house screening provides additive or synergistic effects to other implemented measures. We used commercial screen materials made of polyester, polyethylene or polypropylene to design novel mosquito screens that provide remarkable additional benefits to those commonly used in house screening. The novel design is based on a double screen setup made of a screen with 3D geometric structures parallel to a commercial mosquito screen creating a trap between the two screens. Owing to the design of the 3D screen, mosquitoes can penetrate the 3D screen from one side but cannot return through the other side, making it a unidirectional mosquito screen. Therefore, the mosquitoes are trapped inside the double screen system. The permissiveness of both sides of the 3D screens for mosquitoes to pass through was tested in a wind tunnel using the insectary strain of Anopheles stephensi.ResultsAmong twenty-five tested 3D screen designs, three designs from the cone, prism, or cylinder design groups were the most efficient in acting as unidirectional mosquito screens. The three cone-, prism-, and cylinder-based screens allowed, on average, 92, 75 and 64% of Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes released into the wind tunnel to penetrate the permissive side and 0, 0 and 6% of mosquitoes to escape through the non-permissive side, respectively.ConclusionsA cone-based 3D screen fulfilled the study objective. It allowed capturing 92% of mosquitoes within the double screen setup inside the wind tunnel and blocked 100% from escaping. Thus, the cone-based screen effectively acted as a unidirectional mosquito screen. This 3D screen-based trap design could therefore be used in house screening as a means of avoiding infective bites and reducing mosquito population size.
Highlights
Mosquitoes are vectors for many diseases such as malaria
House screening, which has long been used in developed countries, mostly to keep nuisance mosquitoes away, was associated with protection against malaria when implemented in mosquito control studies in malaria endemic areas [10, 11]
Twenty-five 3D screen designs (19 × 19 cm), detailed properties of which are described in Table 2, were made of the abovementioned screen materials to function as unidirectional mosquito screens
Summary
Mosquitoes are vectors for many diseases such as malaria. Insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying of insecticides are the principal malaria vector control tools used to prevent malaria in the tropics. House screening, which has long been used in developed countries, mostly to keep nuisance mosquitoes away, was associated with protection against malaria when implemented in mosquito control studies in malaria endemic areas [10, 11]. A recent study by Kirby et al [12] measured the clinical outcomes of house screening in an African setting and found that window and door screens and closed eaves halved the prevalence of anemia in children. In another recent study by Diabate et al [13], house screening and mosquito trapping were combined in one tool to control mosquito populations. The study was based on a systematic search for structures made of polyester, Screen material code Screen material
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call