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Entomologists offer new hope for controlling malaria
March 07, 2001Entomologists are bringing new hope of preventing malaria in tropical villages. Research published in the new issue of the Royal Entomological Society journal Medical & Veterinary Entomology could significantly improve the effectiveness of insecticide-treated mosquito nets.
One paper (Guillet et al, Medical & Veterinary Entomology, 15(1), pp. 105-112), describes the development of “two-in-one” mosquito nets impregnated with two different classes of insecticide - pyrethroids and carbamates. Not only are “two-in-one” nets more effective at controlling the malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquito, but they are also better at controlling the nuisance mosquito Culex. The latter is important in encouraging wider uptake of insecticide-treated nets. The use of a combination of two insecticides should also help to reduce the spread of pyrethroid resistance among Anopheles mosquitoes, which is becoming a problem in some areas of Africa, Central America, Turkey and the Middle East.
According to the authors Dr Pierre Guillet of the World Health Organization and his co-workers at the Institut Pierre Richet in the Ivory Coast: “Nets could be more effective if treated on the upper part with a carbamate and with a pyrethroid on the lower part . . . This new approach is based on the observed behaviour of mosquitoes flying around a bednet and occasionally settling on it. From sleepers under the bednet, heat and carbon dioxide emanate and move upwards thermally within the net, which acts like a chimney. Consequently, foraging females tend to begin exploring nets on the upper part, proceeding downwards looking for any bloodmeal opportunity.”
Dr Guillet will also be speaking on the subject at a major meeting on insecticide-treated mosquito nets organised by the “Roll Back Malaria” movement at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva on 12-13 March 2001.
In another paper in this month’s Medical & Veterinary Entomology, Professor Janet Hemingway and her colleagues at Cardiff University describe an important new test for measuring pyrethroid concentrations on mosquito nets (Enayati et al, Medical & Veterinary Entomology, 15(1), pp. 58-63). Based on a simple iodine volumetric titration which can be read by eye, the new assay is a major advance on other tests which are too complex or too expensive to be used in the field in malaria zones. According to Professor Hemingway: “Our method could easily be used in the field to quantify pyrethroid insecticides from impregnated bednets. It should be relatively easy to adapt this method to produce a test kit for residue quantification in the field.”
A simple and cost-effective means of monitoring the amount of pyrethroid is a key part of anti-malaria strategies based on mosquito nets. “To achieve effective mosquito control and manage insecticide resistance development, the amount of pyrethroid insecticide on treated bednets should be monitored regularly to determine their failure points under field conditions and quantify the reimpregnation rates achieved in community-based bednet programmes,” says Professor Hemingway.
In Africa alone over 2 million people die every year from malaria, most of them young children. Malaria is also a serious risk for tourists in the tropics.
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Royal Entomological Society (RES)
Dr Guillet will also be speaking on the subject at a major meeting on insecticide-treated mosquito nets organised by the “Roll Back Malaria” movement at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva on 12-13 March 2001.
In another paper in this month’s Medical & Veterinary Entomology, Professor Janet Hemingway and her colleagues at Cardiff University describe an important new test for measuring pyrethroid concentrations on mosquito nets (Enayati et al, Medical & Veterinary Entomology, 15(1), pp. 58-63). Based on a simple iodine volumetric titration which can be read by eye, the new assay is a major advance on other tests which are too complex or too expensive to be used in the field in malaria zones. According to Professor Hemingway: “Our method could easily be used in the field to quantify pyrethroid insecticides from impregnated bednets. It should be relatively easy to adapt this method to produce a test kit for residue quantification in the field.”
A simple and cost-effective means of monitoring the amount of pyrethroid is a key part of anti-malaria strategies based on mosquito nets. “To achieve effective mosquito control and manage insecticide resistance development, the amount of pyrethroid insecticide on treated bednets should be monitored regularly to determine their failure points under field conditions and quantify the reimpregnation rates achieved in community-based bednet programmes,” says Professor Hemingway.
In Africa alone over 2 million people die every year from malaria, most of them young children. Malaria is also a serious risk for tourists in the tropics.
- ends -
Royal Entomological Society (RES)
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