Kenya

From espians

RUSINGA SHALL BE FREE FROM MALARIA RUSINGA MALARIA CONTROL

WHAT IS MALRIA CONTROL? Malaria control aims to reduce the man-mosquito and man-parasite contact. There are two major ways of targeting malaria control: • Target the malaria parasite through treatment and prophylaxes with drugs • Target the malaria mosquito through mosquito control methods both have to go together to secure a successful malaria control!

VECTOR CONTROL (=MOSQUITO CONTROL)

Mosquitoes have a complex life cycle and develop in different stages. Parts of their early life as larvae, they spend in water, out of these larvae an adult fly is emerging, flying around to look a n host to feed on.

To reduce the mosquito or the contact of mosquito you can target: • The adult fly • Or the aquatic larvae stage

ADULT MOSQUITO CONTROL • Spraying houses with insecticides that have a long lasting effect, mosquitoes dies while sitting on the wall. • Mosquito proof house construction to prevent the mosquitoes from entering the houses through screen/curtains/nettings in the windows/doors eves etc; smooth walls inside the house to prevent mosquitoes from resting there • Use of insecticide treated bednets to prevent mosquitoes from contact and bite at night and to kill those approaching the net. • Use of repellants: burning repellant plants, mosquito coils (insecticide) etc.; using skin lotions etc, wearing protective cloth.

LARVAL MOSQUITO CONTROL • Eliminating or changing the breeding places to make it unsuitable for development of larvae ( remove litter that could hold water, fill holes in the ground, have a good drainage) • Making the breeding site inaccessible for adult mosquitoes to lay their eggs ( cover water storage containers with netting, even the smallest hole; cover hole in pit latrines etc) • Releasing fish or other natural enemies of mosquito larvae into water • Applying larvicides (insecticide that kills mosquito larvae in the breeding places)

WHICH METHOD TO CHOOSE? Mosquito control is most successful if you combine as many different methods as possible, because all methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Nobody can say one single method is the best and has therefore be used and others can be neglected.

Some mosquito control methods can and have to be conducted by individuals e.g.  Use of bednets and care with impregnation with insecticides  Use of repellant plants  House improvement  Removal of artificial breeding sites around the house, like tyres, tins, and any water collecting container, holes in the ground

It is very important as a community and you work all together. Everybody in the community should help to improve the situation of neighborhood household is taking care of the mosquito control measures and you not, your neighbors will still get mosquito bites and you will be responsible for that.

Some mosquito control methods have to be organized and implemented by a trained group of field workers e.g. • Large scale insecticide spraying • Large scale mosquito control

Larval Control activities can be community based organized and implemented. The requirements for insecticide spraying are usually too high and usually these operations are mainly implemented through the national health institutions.

Larval mosquito control in addition to your personal precautions has several advantages • Mosquitoes are destroyed before they disperse to human habitations • The operations can b e carried out in very short time • Very effective and safe larvicides are available • Applications of these larvicides don’t need expensive equipment and is easy to be implemented by trained lay persons.

But there are Disadvantages you have to be a ware of: • Control is temporary and have to be repeated frequently • Application of larvicides have to be done in a certain time because development of larvae is fast, therefore field workers have to reliable and highly motivated • ALL breeding sites have to be covered by larvicide application, otherwise there will be no major impact of the malaria situation in the area • A larval control programme has to be maintained properly throughout years, as soon as control stops mosquitoes and disease will come back

Effective larval control is most feasible where breeding places are: • Limited in number • Easily recognizable • Easily accessible • Well mapped and monitored throughout the year.

WHAT IS THE USE OF DATA COLLECTIONS ON MOSQUITOES IN MALARIA CONTROL?

In Rusinga we would like to collect data on the occurrence of mosquitoes and breeding sites for one year: WHY? BECAUSE: To control the Malaria we have to know it! We need basic information for planning our intervention, we need to WHO we are going to target, WHEN are we going to target, WHERE are we going to target and HOW are we going to target.

Therefore we need to identify:

• If there is Malaria mosquitoes in the area and which ones? • How high is the density of Malaria vectors in the area (larvae and Adults) • When is the density highest in the year? • Which other mo0squitoes are around that are not Malaria mosquitoes and how many? • Where are the different mosquitoes breeding? • Are the breeding places available throughout the year? • How do the breeding sites look like, how do they differ? • How can we prevent mosquitoes breeding in the various sites?

All this information is necessary to design a powerful larval mosquito control operation and to see in the following years whether we have success with our control. We should be able to compare the mosquito densities before and after insecticides treatments and see a reduction in the number of mosquitoes. Further more, data on malaria cases will be collected Rusinga Island Malaria Organization and International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Mbita in the preparation phase as well as during the larval control operations to show if we have an impact on malaria with our control operation.

Agood preparation period is important if a control operation shall be successful in future!!!!! Therefore all people involved have to have great interest, motivation, responsibility and enthusiasm to make the programme work!

WHERE DO MOSQUITOES BREED?

• Mosquito breed only in water! The larvae cannot survive somewhere else, They DO NOT breed in grass or bushes. But the adult flying mosquitoes are resting in bushes, in grass and in houses because they are protected there from the sun, and that is the reason why you find them there and you get bitten there. • Mosquitoes can breed in any kind of water and therefore all water bodies have to be checked for mosquitoes. • Mosquitoes do not breed in the open Lake ( only Lake flies do), but they can breed in the swampy areas where water hyacinth or other floating plants or any reed is growing and protected from waves. • Mosquitoes do not breed in fast running water of rivers, but at the edges where the water is not moving fast they can breed e.g. in cattle hoofing prints, along a river, or along the lake shore. • Anopheles larvae prefer that is sun exposed, Culicine larvae breed everywhere.

HOW TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN DIFFERENT HABITAT TYPES?

In our survey we try to characterize the breeding sites (water bodies) we find, to get an idea which sites are the most attractive ones for anopheles mosquitoes to breed in.

Swamp: Areas along the Lake shore, that have floating vegetation, or reed (high grass) Growing, and areas that show the same characteristics.

Rock pool: Rocks that form the ground of stagnant water, rocks can be on the lake shore, getting water from the waves, or can be the natural ground in the area and collected water after rain

Puddle: Puddles are small to medium sized areas where water stands on the ground after rain, they are always natural.

Footprints: From Hippos and Cattle can form small holes in the wet ground where water can collect, that water can come from rain or can be ground groundwater, or can be lake or river water.

Tyretrack: Vehicles often leave tracks in the ground that get filled with water after rains

Artificial hole: Man-made holes in any ground (for getting soil, for taking stones, for building pit latrine etc.), that can collect water.

Concrete Hole: Are artificial holes, but made out of concrete, in front of newly build stone houses.

Artificial container: Any container collecting water e.g. plastic cups and blue band containers, buckets, clay pots, tyres, tins, water storage containers etc.

HOW TO FIND POSSIBLE BREEDING SITES?

• To find the mosquito breeding areas you have to observe your environment closely. • In all homes you have to check for possible artificial containers and man-made holes, concrete holes, puddles etc. • Ask people if they know any standing water around their compound and if they store water in any way. • Check the lake shore in the area of your responsibility and remember man-made holes. • Check the run off areas where water flows from the hills down to the lake. • Check the rocky areas where water after rain can easily stand for some days or weeks • Check open grassland and tyretracks for any puddles from rain • Always talk to people to information about possible breeding sites. Try to get as many community members involved in the monitoring of habitats as possible. • Always visit the sites close to you, so that you can observe and take water samples • If the site is not accessible at all (too deep) note it! • Check your areas for possible breeding sites once a week because the situation can change quickly after rainfall or activities from man like house building, farming (irrigation)etc

HOW TO IDENTIFY MOSQUITO LARVAE IN A BREEDING PLACE? The identification of larvae in a breeding site is not easy in the beginning, but you will see that a while of practice you will become an expert

If you enter a mosquito breeding site be aware the every movement you make the larvae can see. Larvae tend to dive and disappear from the surface. Then you hardly see any larvae. Therefore enter a breeding site and observe carefully for a few minutes. In bigger sites larvae tend to be only on the edges.

After observing you take dips of water a plastic bowl. Wait here too for a while because larvae are diving in your bowl as well. Be always aware that very young larvae are very small, you have to look closely. Can you see anopheles larvae horizontally swimming on the water surface? Can you see Culicine larvae hanging down from the water surface? Dip always on the edges of water bodies and or near vegetation (like grass), there is the highest possibility to find larvae.

Did you see the anopheles larvae without dipping? Do you have the anopheles larvae in every dip you take (up to 10 dips)? Then you can say the density of anopheles Larvae was high!

Did see Anopheles larvae without dipping? Do you have anopheles larvae in only one or two dips from a number (up to 10 dips)? Then you can say the density of Anopheles larvae was low!!

Did you see Culicine larvae already without dipping? Do you have Culicine larvae nearly in every dip you take (up to 10 dips)? Then you can say the density of Culicine larvae was high!!

Did you see no Culicine larvae without dipping? Do you have Culicine larvae in only of two dips from a number (up to 10 dips)? Then you can say the density of Culicine larvae was low!!!

If you don’t find one of the species or no larvae at all note absent. Try to take as many dips as possible to make your result most reliable.

--80.78.19.244 06:20, 16 July 2007 (UTC)Samwel Okech Kongere Malaria Suiverlance Team Member and Malaria Resource Person RUSINGA ISLAND-KENYA