Journal
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE
Volume 20, Issue 201, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2022.0794
Keywords
malaria; ventilation; Africa; house design; human comfort; mosquito
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study in rural Gambia evaluated the effectiveness of passive and active ventilation in reducing the entry of malaria mosquitoes and cooling the bedroom at night. The solar chimney did not reduce mosquito entry, but the ceiling fan reduced it by 91% compared to the control house. There were no significant differences in indoor temperature, humidity, or CO2 between the intervention and control houses.
Rural houses in sub-Saharan Africa are typically hot and allow malaria mosquitoes inside. We assessed whether passive or active ventilation can reduce house entry of malaria mosquitoes and cool a bedroom at night in rural Gambia. Two identical experimental houses were used: one ventilated and one unventilated (control). We evaluated the impact of (i) passive ventilation (solar chimney) and (ii) active ventilation (ceiling fan) on the number of mosquitoes collected indoors and environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, CO2, evaporation). Although the solar chimney did not reduce entry of Anopheles gambiae sensu lato, the ceiling fan reduced house entry by 91% compared with the control house. There were no differences in indoor nightly temperature, humidity or CO2 between intervention and control houses in either experiment. The solar chimney did not improve human comfort assessed using psychrometric analysis. While the ceiling fan improved human comfort pre-midnight, in the morning it was too cool compared with the control house, although this could be remedied through provision of blankets. Further improvements to the design of the solar chimney are needed. High air velocity in the ceiling fan house probably reduced mosquito house entry by preventing mosquito flight. Improved ventilation in houses may reduce malaria transmission.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available