A comparative epidemiological and entomological analysis of malaria intervention measures in relation to transmission dynamics in rural and urban settlement in IMO State, Nigeria

Several preventive methods are currently in use; Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs), prophalytic drugs (PD) and Indoor Residual Spray (IRS) including Environmental Sanitation (ES) and Health Education (HE). It has remain unclear which measure is the most effective for malaria prevention. We undertook a study to compare the efficacy of different interventions (single and combined) on human subjects and Anopheles mosquitoes between July 2023 and May 2024 in Intervention Cohorts (ICs) and non-intervention cohorts (NICs). Human blood samples aseptically collected were processed using standard procedures. Mosquitoes were caught in 25 households (10 mud and 15 bricks) from each community twice monthly with pyrethrium knockdown (PKD) between 7:00-10:00am from Single Intervention Cohorts (SICs) and combined intervention cohorts (CICs). They were morphologically identified, dissected and Infection rate of salivary glands were assessed for Plasmodium sporozoite Infections using standard protocols. Overall malaria prevalence 12.12% baseline (NICs) and SICs (9.50%) showed that malaria prevalence in NICs was 5times higher than prevalence in SICs (p PD 5.71% >IRS 7.14%) significantly reduced malaria in the respective cohorts order (p ITN+ES (2.66%) > IRS+ITN (3.89%) when compared to SICs (p