Abstract
BackgroundIn Tanzania there has been a downward trend in malaria prevalence partly due to use of insecticide-treated bed nets for protection against Anopheles mosquitoes. However, residual malaria transmission attributed to early biting behaviour of malaria vectors is being reported. Knowledge of mosquito feeding behaviour is key to improvements in control approaches. The present study aimed to assess knowledge and awareness on malaria and malaria vectors in—Morogoro and Dodoma regions of Tanzania.MethodsA cross sectional study was undertaken in selected sites in Morogoro and Dodoma Tanzania. A structured questionnaire was administered to 218 randomly selected households from each of which the head or second in/charge and the most senior primary school child were interviewed.ResultsA total of 400 participants of whom 56 % were females, were recruited into the study. Their ages ranged between nine and 58 years. Among the participants, 70.7 % had primary school education and the rest attained secondary school (16.8 %), university/college (4.0 %) and not attended school at all (8.5 %). Fifteen per cent of the participants were employed, while 45.5 % were self-employed and 39.5 % were studying. Overall, 58.5 % of respondents were knowledgeable of malaria and its vector. However, 78.8 % were not aware that early mosquito bites can transmit malaria and 86.5 % said that only midnight-biting mosquito bite was responsible for malaria transmission. The majority (66 %) of respondents visited a health facility on observing malaria symptoms while 15.8 % took anti-malaria drugs without medical consultation.ConclusionThis study has shown that Anopheles is well known as the night-biting vector of malaria. The majority of participants were not aware of changed biting behaviour of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes and that early outdoor mosquito bite is a risk of malaria transmission. School children have shown a better understanding of malaria and its vector. Therefore, more awareness of Anopheles feeding behaviour is needed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-016-1332-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
In Tanzania there has been a downward trend in malaria prevalence partly due to use of insecticidetreated bed nets for protection against Anopheles mosquitoes
Vector control is the major component of the global strategy for malaria control which aims at preventing parasite transmission mainly through interventions targeting adult Anopheles mosquitoes by protecting individuals who sleep or rest indoors [4, 5]
Malaria vectors have shown substantial change in feeding behaviour whereby these mosquitoes start biting early in the evening, before people have retired to bed where they could be protected by insecticide-treated bed nets [8,9,10,11, 16,17,18]
Summary
In Tanzania there has been a downward trend in malaria prevalence partly due to use of insecticidetreated bed nets for protection against Anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria vectors have shown substantial change in feeding behaviour whereby these mosquitoes start biting early in the evening, before people have retired to bed where they could be protected by insecticide-treated bed nets [8,9,10,11, 16,17,18]. For this reason, LLINs can confer useful but incomplete personal protection. Despite the enormous impact of this mosquito species behaviour, relatively little is known about community knowledge and awareness on their changed feeding behaviour
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