Bednets and malaria
Curtis, V.; Kanki, B.
Africa Health 20(4): 22-23
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0141-9536 PMID: 12293744 Document Number: 274418
Studies across Africa have shown that insecticide-treated materials (ITMs) such as bednets can substantially reduce levels of child mortality through the prevention of malaria. However, while the results of efficacy trials may dictate the need to use ITMs, people in malaria-endemic areas may not recognize and comply with the need. If one wishes to get people to use health technology such as insecticide-impregnated bednets, one must learn about the end-users through clear, simple, formative research, identifying their habits, needs, and wants. Whichever strategy is employed to get ITMs to people in need, the end-users must be committed to obtaining them, caring for them, and using them. All populations in sub-Saharan Africa go to considerable lengths to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes, and see mosquitoes as nuisances rather than as the vectors of a potentially deadly disease. These populations therefore want bednets more to counter mosquitoes as a nuisance than for use as a health technology. In accordance with the population's desires, the authors in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, no longer stress the health benefits of using insecticide-impregnated bednets. They instead promote ITMs as devices capable of giving families peace from mosquitoes and their bites. To repel not only Anopheles gambiae, the vector of malaria-causing parasites, but also Culex, the main nuisance biter in the area, a higher dose of insecticide is now being used to ensure the broad-spectrum repulsion of mosquitoes by ITM users.