Efficacy of the spatial repellent product Mosquito Shield™ against wild pyrethroid-resistant Anopheles arabiensis in south-eastern Tanzania

Abstract Background Spatial repellents that create airborne concentrations of an active ingredient (AI) within a space offer a scalable solution to further reduce transmission of malaria, by disrupting mosquito behaviours in ways that ultimately lead to reduced human-vector contact. Passive emanator...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Malaria Journal
Main Authors: Johnson Kyeba Swai, Alina Celest Soto, Watson Samuel Ntabaliba, Ummi Abdul Kibondo, Hassan Ahamad Ngonyani, Antony Pius Mseka, Anthony Ortiz, Madeleine Rose Chura, Thomas Michael Mascari, Sarah Jane Moore
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: BMC 2023
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04674-4
https://doaj.org/article/bb3bb6209c3d4104b13d956b102ea2be
Description
Summary:Abstract Background Spatial repellents that create airborne concentrations of an active ingredient (AI) within a space offer a scalable solution to further reduce transmission of malaria, by disrupting mosquito behaviours in ways that ultimately lead to reduced human-vector contact. Passive emanator spatial repellents can protect multiple people within the treated space and can last for multiple weeks without the need for daily user touchpoints, making them less intrusive interventions. They may be particularly advantageous in certain use cases where implementation of core tools may be constrained, such as in humanitarian emergencies and among mobile at-risk populations. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of Mosquito Shield™ deployed in experimental huts against wild, free-flying, pyrethroid-resistant Anopheles arabiensis mosquitoes in Tanzania over 1 month. Methods The efficacy of Mosquito Shield™ transfluthrin spatial repellent in reducing mosquito lands and blood-feeding was evaluated using 24 huts: sixteen huts were allocated to Human Landing Catch (HLC) collections and eight huts to estimating blood-feeding. In both experiments, half of the huts received no intervention (control) while the remaining received the intervention randomly allocated to huts and remained fixed for the study duration. Outcomes measured were mosquito landings, blood-fed, resting and dead mosquitoes. Data were analysed by multilevel mixed effects regression with appropriate dispersion and link function accounting for volunteer, hut and day. Results Landing inhibition was estimated to be 70% (57–78%) [IRR 0.30 (95% CI 0.22–0.43); p < 0.0001] and blood-feeding inhibition was estimated to be 69% (56–79%) [IRR 0.31 (95% CI 0.21–0.44; p < 0.0001] There was no difference in the protective efficacy estimates of landing and blood-feeding inhibition [IRR 0.98 (95% CI 0.53–1.82; p = 0.958]. Conclusions This study demonstrated that Mosquito Shield™ was efficacious against a wild pyrethroid-resistant strain of An. ...