[Effectiveness of coils and mats for protection against malaria vectors in Cameroon]

The evaluation of the effectiveness of coils and mats on mosquitoes, especially malaria vectors was carried out in the Southern Cameroon. The study was performed in the Nsimalen village from November 1993 to August 1994. Two brands of coils: Timor and Moon Tiger containing 0.15% W/W of esbiothrin and two brands of mats: ARS MATS (containing d-allethrin) and Moon Tiger (with S biothrin and diethyl-toluamide) were tested. The evaluation was based on night catches on human bait inside houses. A catcher was sitting at two meters of a coil or a mat. Mosquitoes were caught during five consecutive nights per month in five houses. Two of the five houses were protected with the coils, two others with the mats and the fifth was used as control. Each night, coils and mats were rotated in such a way that at the end of the five nights, each house has been protected twice with coils, twice with mats and had served once as control. The composition of the mosquito samples collected was analysed and the reduction rate of bites was calculated for each method. A thousand and twenty nine mosquitoes were caught in all. Two hundred and fifty nine mosquitoes in houses with coils, 180 in those with mats and 590 in the houses which served as control. Anopheles moucheti and Mansonia s.p. accounted more than 90% of the samples; Anopheles gambiae s.s. represented 4 to 9%. Coils reduced malaria vectors bites by 82.8% and mats by 90.5%. Mansonia bites were reduced by 66% only.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)