MALARIA VECTOR CONTROL HISTORY AND CHALLENGES IN ETHIOPIA: MINI REVIEW

In Ethiopia, malaria has been an ancient and historical vector-borne disease. Over 75% of the land surface is malarious, and around 60% of the population is malaria at risk with varying intensity. In 1966, concerted eradication efforts began with the motivation being to eradicate malaria from Ethiopia by 1980. And indoor residual spray (IRS) with Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane (DDT) and trained local staff on vector control methods was the main focus. However, malaria prevalence increased, and the major epidemic occurs every 5-8 years. It manifests a significant problem to the economic and social development of the country. The government directed a malaria control action plan under the objectives of Roll Back Malaria (RBM), which guided prevention and control activities. Between 2005 to 2018, Ethiopia distributed around 100 million long-lasting insecticide nets (LLINs), and 93.7% of the at-risk population were protected up to 2018 by the IRS. The malaria prevalence rate in 2011 was 1.3 whereas, in 2015, it decreased to 0.5. Ethiopia plans to achieve nationwide malaria elimination by 2030. Malaria is still public health threaten disease & accounts for 30% of the overall disability-adjusted life years lost in Ethiopia. And vector control interventions effectiveness has a serious obstacle due to resistance development to all available insecticide and the flexibility of Anopheles mosquito species behavior. Focuses on the history of malaria eradication and control and the controversial issues in malaria elimination. Requires thoughtful consideration of all risks, benefits, and challenges

Malaria vector feeding, peak biting time and resting place preference behaviors in line with Indoor based intervention tools and its implication: scenario from selected sentinel sites of Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, malaria incidence has significantly reduced in the past decade through the combined use of conventional vector control approaches and treatment using antimalarial drugs. However, the sustainability of this achievement is threatened by the shift in biting and resting behaviors and emergence of insecticide resistance by the primary malaria vector. Therefore, continuous monitoring of the behaviour of malaria mosquitoes in different sentinel sites is crucial to design effective prevention and control methods in the local context. Entomological investigations were conducted in three sentinel sites for five consecutive months during the major malaria transmission season. The species composition, population dynamics, biting and resting behaviours of malaria vectors were determined using center for disease control and prevention (CDC) light trap, human landing catch (HLC), pyrethrum spray catch (PSC) and Pitfall shelter collection (PFS). Accordingly, 10 households for CDC, 10 households for PSC, 10 households for PFS and 5 households for HLC from each site were randomly enrolled for mosquito collection. A total of 8,297 anopheline mosquitoes were collected from the three sites, out of which 4,525 (54.5 %) were An. gambiae, s.l. 2,028 (24.4 %) were An. pharoensis, 160 (1.9 %) were An. funestus and the rest 1,584 (19 %) were other anophelines (An. coustani, An. cinerus and An. tenebrosus). No significant variation (P = 0.476) was observed between indoor (25.2/trap-night and outdoor collections (20.1/trap-night). Six hundred seventy six (43.3%) of An. gambiae s.l. (primary vector) were collected between 18:00 and 22:00 h. Biting activity declined between 00:00 and 02:00 h. The national malaria control program should pay close attention to the shifting behavior of vector mosquitoes as the observed outdoor feeding tendency of the vector population could pose challenges to the indoor intervention tools IRS and LLINs