Malaria prevention in the age of climate change: A community survey in rural Senegal

In a rural Senegalese population with a high malaria burden, our survey indicated a need for 0.86 insecticide treated nets per person. This is 54% higher than the current WHO recommendation of 0.56 ITNs per person. Our findings suggest that there are not enough nets because routine village conditions lead to considerable net damage, and because the heat leads people to sleep outdoors, where they likely do not have mosquito nets. With global warming, we suspect this population will spend even more time sleeping outside, aggravating the current insufficiency. Further research should investigate optimal interventions to address this challenge, including nets designed for outside use and for higher durability.