Abstract
We assessed window screens and eave baffles (WSEBs), which enable mosquitoes to enter but not exit houses, as an alternative to indoor residual spraying (IRS) for malaria vector control. WSEBs treated with water, the pyrethroid lambda-cyhalothrin, or the organophosphate pirimiphos-methyl, with and without a binding agent for increasing insecticide persistence on netting, were compared with IRS in experimental huts. Compared with IRS containing the same insecticide, WSEBs killed similar proportions of Anopheles funestus mosquitoes that were resistant to pyrethroids, carbamates and organochlorines and greater proportions of pyrethroid-resistant, early exiting An. arabiensis mosquitoes. WSEBs with pirimiphos-methyl killed greater proportions of both vectors than lambda-cyhalothrin or lambda-cyhalothrin plus pirimiphos-methyl and were equally efficacious when combined with binding agent. WSEBs required far less insecticide than IRS, and binding agents might enhance durability. WSEBs might enable affordable deployment of insecticide combinations to mitigate against physiologic insecticide resistance and improve control of behaviorally resistant, early exiting vectors.
Highlights
We assessed window screens and eave baffles (WSEBs), which enable mosquitoes to enter but not exit houses, as an alternative to indoor residual spraying (IRS) for malaria vector control
Vector control with long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) interventions account for 78% of the 663 million malaria cases and most of the 4 million deaths averted globally over recent years [1,2]
4 directly lethal insecticide classes are recommended for control of adult malaria vectors with LLINs or IRS: pyrethroids; organochlorines (e.g., DDT); carbamates; and organophosphates [8]
Summary
We assessed window screens and eave baffles (WSEBs), which enable mosquitoes to enter but not exit houses, as an alternative to indoor residual spraying (IRS) for malaria vector control. Organochlorines (especially DDT) and carbamates have a long history of use in agriculture and public health, and resistance to these classes is already emerging after only a few years of use in IRS at programmatic scales [7] These classes and organophosphates cannot be safely applied to LLINs at operationally effective doses [8], and are prohibitively expensive for routine IRS applications [9,10,11]. Pirimiphos-methyl procurement for continuous IRS coverage of all at-risk populations would cost $3.3 billion annually across Africa and $12.5 billion worldwide, dwarfing the total global malaria control budget of $2.5 billion [10] As such expensive insecticides have become increasingly necessary because of pyrethroid resistance, IRS coverage has inevitably decreased [9,10,11] to only 3.4% globally [12].
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