Malaria Risks Related To Poor Practices In The Use of Mosquito Bite Control Tools During The Cold And Hot Seasons

Background: It is generally accepted that one of the reasons for the declining effectiveness of vector control tools (LLINs, IRS) is the misuse of these tools. Some people sleep outside while the walls of houses are treated with insecticide to protect people from mosquito bites.Methods:To check whether communities that misuse these tools are more exposed to malaria, we used the technique of direct and participatory observation of sleeping habits and we clocked every 30 min, the activities and positions of the communities from 7pm to 7am. The survey was conducted in 3 departments Northern Benin. These were mainly treatments related to variance analysis and descriptive statistics. Softwares used included SPSS 21, SAS 9.2 and Arcgis 10.4.Results: The study shows that 95% of the villages population included in the study stay in their rooms from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am, and only 5% of household members are outdoors during same time intervals during the harmattan season. On the other hand, during hot weather, there are more households outdoors (37%). Less than 20% of household members are outside their rooms during the harmattan season. This number decreases gradually until 10:00 pm when all of them are inside their rooms.Student Newman Keuls test shows that the household members being inside or outside their rooms does not depend on the urbanization situation of the village, but rather on the period. 65% exposed to mosquito bites gave irritation as the main reason for their behavior and 15% because of heat and lack of space. Overall, because of household member mobility and malaria vector behaviors, human exposure to An. gambiae was higher outside than inside, despite all the observed food preferences in the vectors.Conclusion:To curtail residual malaria transmission, it must be prioritized to raise awareness in the best use of the tools and provide other complementary control tools for use outside the home.