World’s largest LLIN evaluation study yet, undertaken at IDRC – Children using nets with new compound less likely to have malaria parasites, a big advance as many fear world’s most effective malaria tool is faltering as resistance to insecticides rises The LLIN Evaluation in Uganda Project (LLINEUP) / PBO Net Study released results from the largest trial ever undertaken to assess the malaria-fighting power of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs), at the Annual Meeting of American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) 2019.
LLINs have been credited with playing the dominant role in cutting malaria deaths in half over the last 15 years, but there is concern that rising resistance in mosquitoes to pyrethroids, the key insecticide incorporated into the fabric of the nets, is contributing to a recent stall in the decline of malaria infections and deaths—and to a rise of both in some parts of Africa.
At the ASTMH session, the LLINEUP study team presented data from blood tests of over 23,000 children 2 to 10 years old. The data show that for the children who slept under nets augmented with piperonyl butoxide (PBO)—a chemical that blocks enzymes mosquitoes employ to “detoxify” pyrethroids—the number testing positive for malaria parasites 12 months after the nets were distributed was 27% lower than for children sleeping under nets that were treated solely with pyrethroid insecticides. Moreover, households supplied with the PBO-treated nets had 80% fewer malaria-carrying mosquitoes compared to households using conventional LLINs.
Moses Kamya, M.Med, MPH, PhD, the Executive Director of the Uganda Infectious Disease Research Collaboration (IDRC), a study co-leader, said that “there is still an advantage to using any type of LLIN because when you sleep under either type of net, you’re less likely to contract malaria. But the greater reduction in malaria from the PBO-treated nets is significant and switching to this type of net in national malaria control campaigns should be considered.” ASTMH President Chandy C. John, MD, MS, FASTMH said, “With mosquitoes continually evolving resistance to insecticides, this research provides valuable data that will help to guide the difficult decisions about how best to deploy LLINs to combat malaria in sub-Saharan Africa”.
Full press release from the ASTMH 2019 astmhpressroom.wordpress.com/annual-meeting-2019/new-malaria-fighting-bed-netsThe study protocol & all results of the baseline survey have been published
