Ecologists can enable communities to implement malaria vector control in Africa.
BACKGROUND
Integrated vector management (IVM) for malaria control requires ecological skills that are very scarce and rarely applied in Africa today. Partnerships between communities and academic ecologists can address this capacity deficit, modernize the evidence base for such approaches and enable future scale up.


METHODS
Community-based IVM programmes were initiated in two contrasting settings. On Rusinga Island, Western Kenya, community outreach to a marginalized rural community was achieved by University of Nairobi through a community-based organization. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ilala Municipality established an IVM programme at grassroots level, which was subsequently upgraded and expanded into a pilot scale Urban Malaria Control Programme with support from national academic institutes.


RESULTS
Both programmes now access relevant expertise, funding and policy makers while the academic partners benefit from direct experience of community-based implementation and operational research opportunities. The communities now access up-to-date malaria-related knowledge and skills for translation into local action. Similarly, the academic partners have acquired better understanding of community needs and how to address them.


CONCLUSIONS
Until sufficient evidence is provided, community-based IVM remains an operational research activity. Researchers can never directly support every community in Africa so community-based IVM strategies and tactics will need to be incorporated into undergraduate teaching programmes to generate sufficient numbers of practitioners for national scale programmes. Academic ecologists at African institutions are uniquely positioned to enable the application of practical environmental and entomological skills for malaria control by communities at grassroots level and should be supported to fulfil this neglected role.
Mukabana
W Richard
WR
Department of Zoology, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya. rmukabana@uonbi.ac.ke
Kannady
Khadija
K
Kiama
G Michael
GM
Ijumba
Jasper N
JN
Mathenge
Evan M
EM
Kiche
Ibrahim
I
Nkwengulila
Gamba
G
Mboera
Leonard
L
Mtasiwa
Deo
D
Yamagata
Yoichi
Y
van Schayk
Ingeborg
I
Knols
Bart G J
BG
Lindsay
Steven W
SW
Caldas de Castro
Marcia
M
Mshinda
Hassan
H
Tanner
Marcel
M
Fillinger
Ulrike
U
Killeen
Gerry F
GF
D000349:Africa; D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles; D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003256:Community Participation / Q000379:methods; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors; D008288:Malaria / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D009032:Mosquito Control / Q000379:methods*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population