Spatial analysis of impact of insecticide-treated nets for malaria control in Tanzania.

Sponsor: Swiss National Science Foundation, Switzerland
IHRDC investigators: S Abdulla, O Mukasa, H Masanja, R Nathan & GF Killeen
Partner: C Lengeler, TA Smith, P Vounatsou, A Gemperli; Swiss Tropical Institute & A Tami, London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, UK

The objective of this project is to measure the effects and elucidate the underlying mechanisms of community level protection provided by varying levels of bednet coverage achieved through social marketing by the KINET project in Kilombero, Tanzania. 67-73 The full impact of vector control interventions which suppress malaria transmission in entire communities have been substantially underestimated because attempts to evaluate it are confounded by mixing of mosquitoes between areas with and without interventions or between areas with varying levels of intervention coverage and underlying transmission potential. 22,74,75 We are therefore applying novel spatially-explicit malaria transmission modeling approaches to analyze detailed entomological surveys of malaria transmission within the Kilombero Valley Demographic Surveillance System Area so that the true impact of socially marketed nets on individual and community level malaria risk can be evaluated.