title: Household survey of container-breeding mosquitoes and climatic factors influencing the prevalence of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) in Makkah City, Saudi Arabia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the prevalence of container breeding mosquitoes with emphasis on the seasonality and larval habitats of Aedes aegypti (Ae. aegypti) in Makkah City, adjoining an environmental monitoring and dengue incidence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Monthly visits were performed between April 2008 and March 2009 to randomly selected houses. During each visit, mosquito larvae were collected from indoors and outdoors containers by either dipping or pipetting. Mosquitoes were morphologically identified. Data on temperature, relative humidity, rain/precipitations during the survey period was retrieved from governmental sources and analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The city was warmer in dry season (DS) than wet season (WS). No rain occurred at all during DS and even precipitations did fall, wetting events were much greater during WS. Larval survey revealed the co-breeding of Aedes, Culex and Anopheles in a variety of artificial containers in and around homes. 32 109 larvae representing 1st , 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stages were collected from 22 618 container habitats. Culicines was far the commonest and Aedes genus was as numerous as the Culex population. Ae. aegypti larval abundance exhibited marked temporal variations, overall, being usually more abundant during WS. Ten types of artificial containers were found with developing larvae. 70% of these habitats were located indoors. 71.42% of indoor containers were permanent and 28.58% was semi-permanent during WS. Cement tanks was the only container type permanent during DS. Ae. aegypti larval indices (CI, HI, BI) recorded were greater during WS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, these results indicate a high risk of dengue transmission in the holy city.
authors.affiliation: Medical Entomology Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Al Thabiany
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Aziz
authors.forename: Hamady
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dieng
authors.forename: Abu Hassan
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Jazem A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Mahyoub
authors.forename: Abdulhafis M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Turkistani
authors.forename: Hatabbi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mesed
authors.forename: Salah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koshike
authors.forename: Tomomitsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Satho
authors.forename: Mr Che
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Salmah
authors.forename: Hamdan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Wan Fatma
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Zuharah
authors.forename: Ahmad Saad
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Ramli
authors.forename: Fumio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Miake
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes; D000818:Animals; D009033:Culicidae; D003715:Dengue / Q000635:transmission; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D007814:Larva; D015995:Prevalence; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012621:Seasons; D014887:Weather
keywords: Aedes aegypti; Dengue incidence; Environmental factors; Larval indices