Sustaining progress towards malaria elimination by 2025: Lessons from Bhutan & Timor-Leste.

In Asia Pacific, several nations that were part of the World Health Organization's initiative to eliminate malaria by 2020 or the E2020 Initiative reported being off-track. The COVID-19 pandemic further strained health systems and has the potential to stall the efforts and reverse earlier progress made towards the fight against malaria. These nations have since recommitted to eliminating malaria by 2025, in a renewed E2025 Initiative.

Anopheline breeding in river bed pools below major dams in Sri Lanka.

Anopheline mosquito larval surveys were carried out from September 2000 to August 2002 in Mahaweli and Kelani river beds, below five major dams in the wet and intermediate zones of Sri Lanka, to study the prevalence of anopheline species in these areas. In each study site, all permanent and semi-permanent pools were surveyed fortnightly by dipping at 6 dips/m(2) surface area of water. Larvae were collected in separate containers, staged and identified at their third and fourth stages.

Spatiotemporal distribution of insecticide resistance in Anopheles culicifacies and Anopheles subpictus in Sri Lanka.

The malaria situation in Sri Lanka worsened during the 1990s with the emergence and spread of resistance to the drugs and insecticides used for control. Chloroquine resistance has increased rapidly over this period, but adverse changes in malaria transmission are more closely associated with insecticide use rather than drug resistance. Insecticide susceptibility tests were routinely carried out in key anopheline vectors across the country for more than a decade.

Vectors and malaria transmission in a gem mining area in Sri Lanka.

Anopheline vectors of malaria were studied in the Kaluganga gem mining area in the dry zone of central Sri Lanka. Adult mosquitoes were collected using cattle-baited huts and nets, pyrethrum spray sheets, window exit traps and light traps and partial and full-night human landing collections over a period of 17 mo. The collections produced a total of 13,591 anophelines belonging to 14 species.

Control of vectors and incidence of malaria in an irrigated settlement scheme in Sri Lanka by using the insect growth regulator pyriproxyfen.

An evaluation of pyriproxyfen as a larval control agent with the aim of reducing malaria vector populations and incidence of malaria was conducted in 12 villages in an irrigated settlement scheme in the dry zone of central Sri Lanka. In these villages, there are many pools in the beds of rivers, streams, and irrigation ditches during the dry season of the year. These are the major breeding places of the malaria vectors Anopheles culicifacies and An.