Bed net use and associated factors in a rice farming community in Central Kenya.

Background: Use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) continues to offer potential strategy for malaria prevention in endemic areas. However their effectiveness, sustainability and massive scale up remain a factor of socio-economic and cultural variables of the local community which are indispensable during design and implementation stages.

Methods: An ethnographic household survey was conducted in four study villages which were purposefully selected to represent socio-economic and geographical diversity.

Malaria vector control practices in an irrigated rice agro-ecosystem in central Kenya and implications for malaria control.

Background: Malaria transmission in most agricultural ecosystems is complex and hence the need for developing a holistic malaria control strategy with adequate consideration of socio-economic factors driving transmission at community level. A cross-sectional household survey was conducted in an irrigated ecosystem with the aim of investigating vector control practices applied and factors affecting their application both at household and community level.

Methods: Four villages representing the socio-economic, demographic and geographical diversity within the study area were purposefully selected.