Photo by James Gathany
Living in a “modern” house may reduce a person’s risk of contracting malaria, according to research published in Malaria Journal.
As insecticide and drug resistance are on the rise, researchers wanted to determine how making changes to housing might aid the fight against malaria.
So they reviewed 90 studies conducted in Africa, Asia, and South America, comparing the incidence of malaria among people who live in “traditional” and “modern” houses.
The traditional houses consisted of mud, stone, bamboo, or wood walls; thatched, mud, or wood roofs; and earth or wood floors. The modern houses had closed eaves, ceilings, screened doors, and windows.
The researchers found that residents of modern homes were 47% less likely to be infected with malaria than those living in traditional houses. And residents of modern homes were 45% to 65% less likely to have clinical malaria (fever with infection).
“Housing improvements were traditionally an important pillar of public health, but they remain underexploited in malaria control,” said study author Lucy Tusting, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK.
“Good housing can block mosquitoes from entering homes and prevent them from transmitting malaria to the people who live there. Our study suggests housing could be an important tool in tackling malaria. This is a welcome finding at a time when we are facing increasing resistance to our most effective insecticides and drugs.”
“We now need to pinpoint which housing features can reduce mosquito entry in different settings, to incorporate these into local housing designs, and to assess the impact on malaria in large-scale field trials.”
The researchers noted that the effectiveness of improving housing will vary depending on the location. While many mosquitoes enter homes to bite humans at night, outdoor malaria transmission is more common in some places. So interventions centered on the home will have less of an impact in these areas.
The researchers also conceded that the studies eligible for inclusion in this review were of low quality. However, they said the consistency of the findings indicate that housing is an important risk factor for malaria.
