Abstract

Malaria is a highly infectious disease, in Malawi it is mainly transmitted by Anopheles gambiae, Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles funestus. It is of the most significant causes of morbidity and mortality in Malawi and remains a leading killer in Africa. Malaria is responsible for 90% of the deaths in Sub-Saharan region, 20.3% in Africa and 35% in Malawi. The study was conducted to identify environmental factors that may affect mosquito populations in the study area and to assess how eave nets affect malaria prevalence and vectors in the study area. Eave nets were installed in 200 randomly selected houses; the study was conducted as part of monitoring of a larger project and for this purpose it sampled 45 households. Environmental factors of the study area such as temperature, rainfall, land use and distance from swamps to houses were identified and mosquito collection and identification were done. Distance was measured using google earth and mosquitoes were caught using light traps and Pyrethroid Spray Catch Sheet (PSSC), identification was done microscopically and confirmed using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). To evaluate malaria transmission, parasitaemia tests were done on the people living in the study area. Mosquito collection and parasitaemia tests were done and compared among individuals from houses that had eave nets and those from houses without eave nets. Results showed that eave nets were effective in reducing entry of mosquitoes into houses. Malaria transmission was reduced by the use of bed nets and not so much by presence of eave nets. The distance from houses to the nearest swampy area had no significant effect on malaria prevalence.

More details

School	: School of Natural and Applied Sciences
Issued Date	: 2017

Download full document