With ECOMORE Philippines component scheduled to take off in 2019, the Department of Medical Entomology of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine assigned from 16 to 21 December 2018, Mr. Jason Angeles, Entomologist, to observe how the entomological work of ECOMORE study in Lao PDR is being implemented. This one-week fieldwork was organized especially to provide experience to the Philippines team on operational constrains for maintenance of the In2care system because it is planned to install 3,000 traps in Lipa City (vs. 600 in Vientiane City).
Sebastien Marcombe, researcher entomologist at IPL took opportunity of this mission to show the entomological surveillance system to assess efficacy of the In2care traps and techniques performed at IPL to test insecticide resistance.
Servicing In2Care Traps
In2Care Traps are installed and left throughout the year in 2 selected treated villages in Vientiane City. Refilling and checking of the traps is conducted every 6 weeks. The traps are checked to detect presence of Aedes mosquito larvae and pupa, and to determine if other mosquito species are also captured in the trap; remaining water level in the container and the wetness of the gauze is measured and reported on the maintenance form. Collecting all these data is necessary to adjust proper servicing of In2care traps in various meteorological conditions. Then, the gauze is replaced with a new one and the water is thrown out before refilling.
Checking efficacy of the trap
Water from randomly selected traps is placed in a container to better view larvae which are later collected and placed in Whirlpacks to be shipped to IPL. Surrounding possible breeding sites are also observed to detect presence of mosquito larvae to evaluate auto-dissemination effectiveness.
The collected larvae are then placed in rearing pans located in a tent outside at IPL. The containers are monitored every day to check the larval mortality. Once the mosquitoes reach pupal stage, they are transferred to emergence containers to check if the mosquitoes can fully emerge and also to identify the species.
Surveillance of mosquito density
Ovitraps are installed in the four villages (2 intervention and 2 non-intervention villages) which are involved in the study. These traps are monitored on a weekly basis. Additionally, BGS traps are installed in the same four villages on a 24-hour duration every week. The objective of this surveillance is to assess the effect of In2Care on the mosquito and especially Aedes population.
Testing of insecticide resistance at IPL
Insecticide resistance testing is also a part of the ECOMORE study in Lao PDR. Insecticide resistance of mosquitoes collected from the field is assessed using the standard WHO protocol. This is performed to assess if the presence of the In2Care system can affect the insecticide resistance and development of mosquitoes
This joint fieldwork mission has shown the flow of activities, procedures and constrains to properly evaluate the potential efficacy of the auto-dissemination technique for Aedes control; for Philippines component, it will result in some adjustments of the methodology in terms of operational organization and logistics and so in a robust protocol.
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