RESUMEN
Lorenz von Seidlein and colleagues discuss improving house designs in rural Africa to benefit health.
Asunto(s)
Arquitectura y Construcción de Instituciones de Salud/métodos , Conocimientos, Actitudes y Práctica en Salud , Vivienda , Malaria/prevención & control , Dinámica Poblacional , Salud Rural , África/epidemiología , Clima , Arquitectura y Construcción de Instituciones de Salud/economía , Promoción de la Salud , Humanos , Humedad , Pobreza , Población RuralRESUMEN
Most malaria infections in sub-Saharan Africa are acquired indoors, thus finding effective ways of preventing mosquito house entry should reduce transmission. Since most malaria mosquitoes fly less than 1 m from the ground, we tested whether raising buildings off the ground would prevent the entry of Anopheles gambiae, the principal African malaria vector, in rural Gambia. Nightly collections of mosquitoes were made using light traps from four inhabited experimental huts, each of which could be moved up or down. Mosquito house entry declined with increasing height, with a hut at 3 m reducing An. gambiae house entry by 84% when compared with huts on the ground. A propensity for malaria vectors to fly close to the ground and reduced levels of carbon dioxide, a major mosquito attractant, in elevated huts, may explain our findings. Raised buildings may help reduce malaria transmission in Africa.