Mosquito abundance, bed net coverage and other factors associated with variations in sporozoite infectivity rates in four villages of rural Tanzania.

BACKGROUND: Entomological surveys are of great importance in decision-making processes regarding malaria control strategies because they help to identify associations between vector abundance both species-specific ecology and disease intervention factors associated with malaria transmission. Sporozoite infectivity rates, mosquito host blood meal source, bed net coverage and mosquito abundance were assessed in this study. METHODOLOGY: A longitudinal survey was conducted in four villages in two regions of Tanzania. Malaria vectors were sampled using the CDC light trap and pyrethrum spray catch methods. In each village, ten paired houses were selected for mosquitoes sampling. Sampling was done in fortnight case and study was undertaken for six months in both Kilimanjaro (Northern Tanzania) and Dodoma (Central Tanzania) regions. RESULTS: A total of 6,883 mosquitoes were collected including: 5,628 (81.8%) Anopheles arabiensis, 1,100 (15.9%) Culex quinquefasciatus, 89 (1.4%) Anopheles funestus, and 66 (0.9%) Anopheles gambiae s.s. Of the total mosquitoes collected 3,861 were captured by CDC light trap and 3,022 by the pyrethrum spray catch method. The overall light trap: spray catch ratio was 1.3:1. Mosquito densities per room were 96.5 and 75.5 for light trap and pyrethrum spray catch respectively. Mosquito infectivity rates between villages that have high proportion of bed net owners and those without bed nets was significant (P < 0.001) and there was a significant difference in sporozoite rates between households with and without bed nets in these four villages (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Malaria remains a major problem in the study areas characterized as low transmission sites. Further studies are required to establish the annual entomological inoculation rates and to observe the annual parasitaemia dynamics in these communities. Outdoor mosquitoes collection should also be considered.

Amebiasis and comparison of microscopy to ELISA technique in detection of Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar.

The analysis of records of amoebal infection in various hospitals in Kilimanjaro indicated frequent occurrence of amebiasis. The population over the age of five years had higher rate of amoebal infection compared to less than that of a five-year-old population; however, both age groups had similar patterns of amebiasis during January 1999 to June 2001. To investigate misdiagnosis of amebiasis, 226 patients (passive cases) in three hospitals and 616 individuals (active cases) from three different localities in Kilimanjaro were examined. In passive cases, the prevalences of Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar were 1% and 7.3%, respectively. Among active cases, 1% were infected with E. histolytica, and 15% were infected with E. dispar. There were no significant differences in amoebal infection between the male and female populations. A pool of 842 stool samples was used for diagnosis of E. histolytica and E. dispar by microscopic examination or ELISA kits. The microscopic examination indicated 8.7% amoebal infection; however, using ELISA as the gold standard, the prevalence of histolytica/dispar was 0.8% and 7.4%, respectively. This study indicated that E. dispar infection was 14.5 times more prevalent than E. histolytica infection.