title: The effect of screening doors and windows on indoor density of Anopheles arabiensis in south-west Ethiopia: a randomized trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Screening of houses might have impact on density of indoor host-seeking Anopheles mosquitoes. A randomized trial of screening windows and doors with metal mesh, and closing openings on eves and walls by mud was conducted to assess if reduce indoor densities of biting mosquitoes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mosquitoes were collected in forty houses using Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) light traps biweekly in March and April 2011. A randomization of houses into control and intervention groups was done based on the baseline data. Windows and doors of 20 houses were screened by metal mesh, and openings on the walls and eves closed by mud and the rest 20 houses were used as control group. Mosquitoes were collected biweekly in October and November 2011 from both control and intervention houses. A Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) with a negative binomial error distribution was used to account for over dispersion of Anopheles arabiensis and culicine counts and repeated catches made in the same house.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Screening doors and windows, and closing openings on eves and wall by mud reduced the overall indoor densities of An. arabiensis by 40%. The effect of screenings pronounced on unfed An. arabiensis by resulting 42% reduction in houses with interventions. The total costs for screening windows and doors, and to close openings on the eves and walls by mud was 7.34 USD per house.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Screening houses reduced indoor density of An. arabiensis, and it was cheap and can easily incorporated into malaria vector strategies by local communities, but improving doors and windows fitness for screening should be considered during house construction to increase the efficacy of screenings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia. fekadu.massebo@amu.edu.et.
authors.forename: Fekadu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Massebo
authors.forename: Bernt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lindtjørn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000852:Anopheles / Q000254:growth & development*; D005002:Ethiopia; D006801:Humans; D009032:Mosquito Control / Q000379:methods*; D011156:Population Density
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