Programme de bourses "Echanges Universitaires"

Environmental management and larviciding of mosquito breeding sites as a component of integrated malaria vector control in Tanzania

A number of mosquito control methods are known to prevent malaria. The scaling up of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor-residual spraying (IRS) has shown considerable successes. However, if current and future gains shall be sustained, it is essential to develop and evaluate new, complementary approaches to mosquito control while supporting early-career African scientists to develop their scientific skills. In addition to the tools mentioned above, source reduction by environmental management or larviciding of mosquito breeding sites is another promising malaria control tool. Although the city of Dar es Salaam and the islands of Zanzibar in Tanzania have already shown tremendous successes in this respect, there is still a lot of untapped potential for optimising interventions related to source reduction.

In order to jointly plan and initiate a new component of the long-established Tanzanian-Swiss research collaboration, a workshop and a series of planning meetings were conducted in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar between September and November 2009. The workshop and planning meetings were aiming at (1) joint identification of relevant topics for applied research contributing to improved source reduction of malaria and other disease vectors, and (2) developing an outline for a research proposal to be submitted to appropriate funding organisations.

Standing surface water in an agriculturally used lowland area as a breeding site of malaria vector mosquitoes in Dar es Salaam – what is the potential of environmental management for controlling malaria in such areas? Picture: Dongus 2005.

Partner institutions and contact person:

Ifakara Health Institute
P.O. Box 78373
Kiko Avenue
Mikocheni B
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Email: dar@ihi.or.tz

Dr. Stefan Dongus
Swiss Tropical Institute
Department of Public Health and Epidemiology
Socinstr. 57, P.O. Box
4002 Basel, Switzerland
Email: stefan.dongus@unibas.ch