Knowledge and practices related to plague persistence in plague-endemic foci, Mbulu District, Tanzania.

Introduction: Plague continues to be a major public health concern in African countries. Several social practices and environmental conditions have been associated with the reoccurrence of bubonic plague, especially in places where the disease is prevalent. Therefore, it remains important to understand people knowledge, behavior and practices related to disease risks in order to identify factors that may hinder prevention and control strategies in the foci.

Flea infestation of rodent and their community structure in frequent and non-frequent plague outbreak areas in Mbulu district, northern Tanzania.

Understanding rodent-ectoparasite interactions and the factors driving them is important in understanding the epidemiology of diseases involving an arthropod vector. Fleas are the primary vector for , the bacteria that causes plague and monitoring of flea population is essential for planning the potential mitigation measures to prevent the disease outbreak. In this study, we investigated flea abundance, community structure and the potential factors driving flea infestation in areas with frequent (persistent) and non-frequent plague (non-persistent) outbreaks.

Passive Outdoor Host Seeking Device (POHD): Designing and Evaluation against Outdoor Biting Malaria Vectors.

Odor-baited devices are increasingly needed to compliment long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) for control of residual malaria transmission. However, the odor-baited devices developed so far are bulky, dependent on the source of electricity and carbon dioxide (CO), and they are logistically unsuitable for scaling up in surveillance and control of malaria vectors. We designed a passive and portable outdoor host seeking device (POHD) and preliminarily evaluated suitable components against that maintains residual malaria transmission.

The Use of Granular Cyclopentanone as Alternative to Artificial Source of Carbon Dioxide in Improved Passive Outdoor Host Seeking Device (POHD).

Reliable sources of CO that are relatively cheap, obtainable, and easy to sustain are immediately required for scaling up of odor-baited mosquito surveillance and control devices. Several odor-baited devices are in the pipeline; however, their scale-up against residual malaria transmission, particularly in resource poor areas, is limited by the unavailability of reliable sources of CO and reliance on electrical power sources among other factors. We evaluated the use of granular cyclopentanone as an alternative to artificial or yeast fermentation-produced CO in passive outdoor host seeking device (POHD).

Semifield Evaluation of Improved Passive Outdoor Host Seeking Device (POHD) for Outdoor Control of Mosquitoes.

Despite the considerable progress made so far, the effectiveness and mass application of odour-baited outdoor mosquito control devices in pipelines is limited by several factors. These include the design and size of the devices, optimal placement of attractive blends, and nature of materials into which the blends are impregnated. The primary aim of this study was to manipulate these factors to improve the attractiveness of our recently developed passive outdoor host seeking device (POHD) to outdoor biting .

Ivermectin-treated cattle reduces blood digestion, egg production and survival of a free-living population of Anopheles arabiensis under semi-field condition in south-eastern Tanzania.

Background: Anopheles arabiensis feed on cattle and contributes to residual transmission of malaria in areas with high coverage of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets and indoor residual spraying in East Africa. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of ivermectin-treated cattle as a complementary vector control tool against population of An. arabiensis under the semi-field conditions in south-eastern Tanzania.

Eave tubes for malaria control in Africa: initial development and semi-field evaluations in Tanzania.

Background: Presented here are a series of preliminary experiments evaluating "eave tubes"-a technology that combines house screening with a novel method of delivering insecticides for control of malaria mosquitoes.

Methods: Eave tubes were first evaluated with overnight release and recapture of mosquitoes in a screened compartment containing a hut and human sleeper. Recapture numbers were used as a proxy for overnight survival.

Eave tubes for malaria control in Africa: an introduction.

In spite of massive progress in the control of African malaria since the turn of the century, there is a clear and recognized need for additional tools beyond long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) of insecticides, to progress towards elimination. Moreover, widespread and intensifying insecticide resistance requires alternative control agents and delivery systems to enable development of effective insecticide resistance management strategies. This series of articles presents a novel concept for malaria vector control, the 'eave tube', which may fulfil these important criteria.