Last Updated: 03/12/2025
Improving the efficacy of malaria prevention in an insecticide resistant Africa – Collaborative Award
Objectives
This study was conducted in a region of Burkina Faso, chosen to represent the potential future of malaria transmission in Africa (high LLIN coverage, high levels of pyrethroid resistance, and stubbornly persistent levels of malaria infection in the population), with the following aims:
1. To quantify the level of protection provided by LLINs in an insecticide resistant Africa through renewal of mathematical models of malaria transmission to incorporate empirical data on the ecology and behaviour of insecticide resistant vectors.
2. To identify cost effective, complementary interventions that would drive malaria transmission towards zero. We will achieve this using a trans-disciplinary approach, including entomology, epidemiology, mathematical modelling and economics, to address the following specific research questions:
- What are the risk factors associated with malaria infection in children in a rural district of Burkina Faso?
- How do physiologically and behaviourally resistant mosquito populations limit LLIN performance?
- What are the patterns and determinants of LLIN use and access to treatment?
- What combination of interventions will be most effective in driving malaria to zero?
- What is the most cost effective and affordable package of malaria prevention tools?
Heather Ferguson
Hilary Ranson
David Towers
Steven W. Lindsay
Thomas Churcher
Eve Worrall
Sagnon N’Fale
Philip McCall
Jason Matthiopoulos
Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. Deaths from malaria have halved over the past decade due to extensive financial investment in proven tools that can prevent transmission, such as insecticide-treated bednets. However, these gains are fragile. More than 600,000 people still die from malaria each year, the majority children in Africa. There are signs that the most effective malaria prevention tools are beginning to fail as mosquitoes develop resistance to the insecticides used on bednets or adapt their behaviour to feed at times when bednets are not in use. It is critical that we understand how these changes are affecting our ability to control malaria so that we can adapt control measures accordingly. This project involves scientists with expertise in measuring and understanding mosquito and human behaviour, mathematicians who will quantify the impact of these traits on the predicted efficacy of different packages of interventions and economists who will consider the cost of these alternative approaches. This holistic approach will enable us to propose a pragmatic, affordable solution to ensure that successes in reducing the devastating effects of malaria in Africa are sustained.
May 2016 — May 2019
$3.57M
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