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Habitat-Based Larval Interventions: A New Perspective for Malaria Control

Interest in environmental management of mosquito larval habitats has been rekindled due to deterioration of malaria in tropical Africa. Environmental management programs were typically implemented as "all-out" campaigns by treating all potential breeding habitats. In contrast, targeted environmental management is based on a sound understanding of the heterogeneity in mosquito productivity. However, deficiencies in field methodology for measuring productivity hamper our progress in understanding of mosquito productivity. To address these issues, we develop a framework of habitat-based interventions by adoption of a landscape approach to elucidate mechanisms underlying mosquito productivity. The importance of vigorously quantitative estimation of the productivity is highlighted. Spatial models are proposed to examine the interrelationship between mosquito productivity and oviposition of gravid mosquitoes. In our view, environmental management approaches must take into account variability in productivity, in efforts to improve feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of such approaches, particularly when implemented along with other malaria control measures.

Received May 15, 2007. Accepted for publication September 21, 2007.

Acknowledgments: The authors thank an anonymous referee for a series of most useful comments.

Financial support: This work was funded by NIH U01 A154889 (R.J.N.). J.U. acknowledges financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (project no. PPOOB-102883).

^* Address correspondence to Weidong Gu, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL 35294. E-mail: wgu{at}uab.edu

Authors’ addresses: Weidong Gu and Robert J. Novak, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL 35294, Telephone: +1 (205) 975–9053, Fax: +1 (205) 934–5600, E-mail: wgu{at}uab.edu. Jürg Utzinger, Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Swiss Tropical Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland.

Reprint requests: Weidong Gu, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL 35294, Telephone: +1 (205) 975-9053, Fax: +1 (205) 934-5600, E-mail: wgu{at}uab.edu.