Housing architectural improvements could reduce malaria cases by half in some
settings, according to research a published in the open access Malaria Journal.
As mosquitoes become
resistant to insecticides, and malaria parasites resistant to drugs,
researchers looked at how making changes to houses might contribute to tackling
the deadly disease.
The study, “The
evidence for improving housing to reduce malaria: A systematic review and
meta-analysis,” was led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
in partnership with Durham University and the University of California, San
Francisco, whose copy was made available to the Ghana News Agency.
It was funded
jointly by the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research in Agriculture and
Health; US National Institutes of Health; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;
Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development; Medical Research Council and
Department For International Development.
The researchers
reviewed 90 studies in Africa, Asia and South America, comparing malaria cases in traditional houses
(mud, stone, bamboo or wood walls; thatched, mud or wood roofs; earth or wood
floors) and modern houses (closed eaves, ceilings, screened doors and windows).
They found that residents
of modern homes were 47% less likely to be infected with malaria than those
living in traditional houses, and residents were 45-65% less likely to have
clinical malaria (fever with infection).
Professor Lucy
Tusting from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and lead
author said: “Housing improvements were traditionally an important pillar of
public health, but they remain underexploited in malaria control. Good housing
can block mosquitoes from entering homes and prevent them from transmitting
malaria to the people who live there.
“Our study suggests
housing could be an important tool in tackling malaria. This is a welcome
finding at a time when we are facing increasing resistance to our most
effective insecticides and drugs. We now need to pinpoint which housing
features can reduce mosquito entry in different settings, to incorporate these
into local housing designs and to assess the impact on malaria in large-scale
field trials.”
Malaria, a
life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people
through the bites of infected mosquitoes, causes more than half a million
deaths per year, mostly among African children.
The authors noted
that the effectiveness of improving housing would vary, depending on the
location.
While many mosquitoes
entered homes to bite humans at night, outdoor malaria-transmission was more
common in some places, meaning interventions centered on the home would have
less impact.
Prof Steve Lindsay
from Durham University and co-author, added: “Improved housing has huge
potential to reduce malaria transmission around the globe and to keep malaria
at bay where we have eliminated it. Since many of the world’s major vector
borne diseases are transmitted indoors, improved housing is likely to be
protective against diseases like dengue, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and
lymphatic filariasis.
“In many parts of
the tropics development is occurring at an unprecedented rate and the quality
of housing is improving too. Across much of sub-Saharan Africa thatched-roofed
houses are being replaced by metal-roofed housing. We need to ride this wave of
house improvement and develop new ways of protecting people against the insects
that transmit so many deadly and debilitating diseases. Good housing should
line-up alongside clean water and sanitation as major public health
interventions.”
While the studies
eligible for inclusion in this new review were of low quality, the authors say
the consistency of the findings indicate that housing was an important risk
factor for malaria.
Credit: GNA
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