The study was conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's biggest and economically most important city with 2.7 million inhabitants and a total area of 1400 km2 [22 (link),27 ]. The city is divided into three municipalities, namely Ilala, Kinondoni and Temeke. Each of these municipalities is further divided into wards and then neighbourhoods known as mitaa (singular mtaa) in Kiswahili, literally meaning street [28 (link)].
A recently-initiated Urban Malaria Control Programme (UMCP) in Dar es Salaam delegates responsibility for routine mosquito control and surveillance to modestly paid community members, known as Community-Owned Resource Persons (CORPs) in a decentralized manner [29 (link)]. However, baseline evaluation revealed that at the early stage of the UMCP the levels of coverage achieved by the CORPs were insufficient to enable effective suppression of malaria transmission through larval control, and that training, support and supervision of the CORPs was poor [24 (link)]. The authors concluded that novel surveillance systems were required to enable community-based integrated vector management [24 (link)].
Early experience also indicated that control of culicine species, responsible for the bulk of biting nuisance [30 (link)-32 (link)], would be essential to achieve community acceptance and support for the programme. It was therefore decided to prioritize intensive control of malaria vector species in habitats which are open to sunlight (referred to as "open habitats") but to also implement less intensive control of sanitation structures, such as pit latrines, soakage pits, and container type habitats which are closed to the sun (referred to as "closed habitats") and produce huge numbers of Culex and Aedes, but no Anopheles [33 (link),34 (link)]. Thus, the bulk of the programme description below prioritizes and focuses on the system for controlling open habitats suitable for Anopheles, with a brief section describing mosquito control in closed habitats, for which no detailed routine larval surveillance was undertaken.
A recently-initiated Urban Malaria Control Programme (UMCP) in Dar es Salaam delegates responsibility for routine mosquito control and surveillance to modestly paid community members, known as Community-Owned Resource Persons (CORPs) in a decentralized manner [29 (link)]. However, baseline evaluation revealed that at the early stage of the UMCP the levels of coverage achieved by the CORPs were insufficient to enable effective suppression of malaria transmission through larval control, and that training, support and supervision of the CORPs was poor [24 (link)]. The authors concluded that novel surveillance systems were required to enable community-based integrated vector management [24 (link)].
Early experience also indicated that control of culicine species, responsible for the bulk of biting nuisance [30 (link)-32 (link)], would be essential to achieve community acceptance and support for the programme. It was therefore decided to prioritize intensive control of malaria vector species in habitats which are open to sunlight (referred to as "open habitats") but to also implement less intensive control of sanitation structures, such as pit latrines, soakage pits, and container type habitats which are closed to the sun (referred to as "closed habitats") and produce huge numbers of Culex and Aedes, but no Anopheles [33 (link),34 (link)]. Thus, the bulk of the programme description below prioritizes and focuses on the system for controlling open habitats suitable for Anopheles, with a brief section describing mosquito control in closed habitats, for which no detailed routine larval surveillance was undertaken.
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