Message-ID: <19990128020723.AAD24097@LOCALNAME> Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 22:07:25 -0400 From: Kerry Miller <mailto:kerryo@NS.SYMPATICO.CA> Subject: Environmentally Controlling Malaria To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
http://www.idrc.ca/reports/read_article_english.cfm?article_num=146Controlling Malaria: A Low Cost, Environmentally Friendly Mosquito Killer
Katherine Morrow
November 21, 1997
For years, Peruvian microbiologist Palmira Ventosilla, an expert on tropical disease vectors, has toiled to control malaria, by targeting the spread of the Anopheles mosquito. In 1991, her work took on a greater urgency when P. falciparum — the most deadly type of malaria parasite — spread to Peru.
Ventosilla and her colleagues at the Alexander von Humboldt Tropical Medicine Institute in Lima have developed a low-cost, environmentally friendly alternative to pesticides for use as mosquito killers in the fight against malaria. In Salitral, a town found in Peru's humid, semi-tropical northern coast, Ventosilla's team has been teaching people how to use coconuts as a natural incubator for Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) strain H-14. This naturally occurring bacterium is harmless to humans and animals, but can kill Anopheles mosquitoes in the larval stage, before they emerge from ponds or other breeding sites.
The incubation process involves inserting a cotton swab soaked in Bti into the coconut, then sealing it with wax. After a few days of fermentation, the coconut is split open and applied to local ponds where mosquitoes are known to breed. This simple procedure requires little training. Except for the Bti swabs, all of the necessary equipment — including candle wax, a sharp knife, and a coconut — is locally available.
Community-based approach
In Salitral, the Bti-coconut technology is the centrepiece of a community-based malaria control program, which was funded for many years by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). This program aims to give local people sufficient knowledge and resources to control malaria on their own — a necessary strategy in a country such as Peru, where 25% of the population lacks access to health care services. Under this program, community residents receive lessons on how to use the Bti coconut technology, the life cycle of the Anopheles mosquito, and the environmental conditions that favour the spread of malaria. Armed with such information, people can control mosquito levels by applying Bti to breeding sites, paving irrigation channels, and eliminating waste water. And they can protect themselves from mosquito bites by using bednets and window screens, planting lemon and eucalyptus trees (which act as natural barriers to the mosquito), and fumigating their homes by burning eucalyptus branches and leaves.
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