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For decades, Africa's malaria strategy has focused almost exclusively on disease control through indoor mosquito management and personal protection — bed nets, indoor spraying, and individual-level interventions. But this approach alone isn’t working. Progress against malaria in the African region has slowed significantly, with cases declining by just 5% since 2015 and mortality by 16%, according to the World Health Organization.
Experts now argue it’s time to shift from disease-centric, indoor mosquito management to more robust integrated mosquito management strategies. That means taking a tiered approach, starting with reducing mosquito breeding sites, treating water sources with larvicides, and then targeting adult mosquitoes. “The tendency will probably be to think about controlling mosquitoes when they are flying only. But they are actually more vulnerable when they are not flying, usually when they are in the water,” explained Silas Majambere, a medical entomologist and business manager of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East at Valent BioSciences.
This approach, known as larval source management, has proven both cost-effective and sustainable. “The conversation is shifting away from just talking about a disease and saying, ‘How do we take those limited public health dollars and manage the mosquito so that we can manage multiple diseases for those dollars?’” said Jason Clark, managing director for global public health and forest health at Valent BioSciences.
Some countries are already moving in this direction. In Benin, the government is framing mosquito control not just as a health issue but as an economic one. The government is focusing on tourism as one of the key pillars of growth for the country, and the presence of mosquito-borne diseases is a direct threat to that, explained Sinde Chekete, adviser to the president of Benin. “We believe that investing in mosquito control will ultimately bring resources, will bring revenue, because we'll be able to welcome more tourists … and reduce the overall cost of malaria,” he said.
Chekete, Majambere, and Clark joined Devex Executive Editor Kate Warren to discuss the shift toward integrated mosquito management in a special Devex podcast episode sponsored by Valent BioSciences.
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