Monitoring of human and mosquito behavior to understand malaria transmission in agricultural development areas in Ethiopia

Objectives

The main research objective is to determine the behavior of humans in the agricultural areas that puts them at risk of receiving infectious bites, with the aim of developing appropriate malaria interventions to prevent malaria transmission in these areas. 

A secondary objective is to understand the conditions in these sites (such as housing and access to treatment) that can influence their risk. The identification of places and times of risk for malaria transmission will be conducted in stages. The first stage will be the administration of a structured questionnaire to provide basic information on the housing and working situations of workers. The results from the questionnaires will lead to the identification of areas which can be monitored to provide quantitative data as to the biting times of mosquitoes and the evening, night-time, and morning behavior of humans in the specified areas. Finally, a series of in-depth interviews with workers and farm managers will follow up to address issues raised in the questionnaires and mosquito/human observations, as well as other aspects of the workers’ presence in these areas – such as seasonality, housing, and health seeking behavior.