Decreased bioefficacy of long-lasting insecticidal nets and the resurgence of malaria in Papua New Guinea

Rebecca Vinit, Lincoln Timinao, Nakei Bubun, Michelle Katusele, Leanne J. Robinson, Peter Kaman, Muker Sakur, Leo Makita, Lisa Reimer, Louis Schofield, William Pomat, Ivo Mueller, Moses Laman, Tim Freeman and Stephan Karl ()
Additional contact information
Rebecca Vinit: PNG Institute of Medical Research
Lincoln Timinao: PNG Institute of Medical Research
Nakei Bubun: PNG Institute of Medical Research
Michelle Katusele: PNG Institute of Medical Research
Leanne J. Robinson: PNG Institute of Medical Research
Peter Kaman: PNG Institute of Medical Research
Muker Sakur: PNG Institute of Medical Research
Leo Makita: National Department of Health
Lisa Reimer: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Louis Schofield: James Cook University
William Pomat: PNG Institute of Medical Research
Ivo Mueller: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, 1G
Moses Laman: PNG Institute of Medical Research
Tim Freeman: Rotarians Against Malaria
Stephan Karl: PNG Institute of Medical Research

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Papua New Guinea (PNG) has the highest malaria transmission outside of Africa. Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) are believed to have helped to reduce average malaria prevalence in PNG from 16% in 2008 to 1% in 2014. Since 2015 malaria in PNG has resurged significantly. Here, we present observations documenting decreased bioefficacy of unused LLINs with manufacturing dates between 2013 and 2019 collected from villages and LLIN distributors in PNG. Specifically, we show that of n = 167 tested LLINs manufactured after 2013, only 17% are fulfilling the required World Health Organisation bioefficacy standards of ≥ 80% 24 h mortality or ≥ 95% 60 min knockdown in bioassays with pyrethroid susceptible Anopheles farauti mosquitoes. In contrast, all (100%, n = 25) LLINs with manufacturing dates prior to 2013 are meeting these bioefficacy standards. These results suggest that decreased bioefficacy of LLINs is contributing to the malaria resurgence in PNG and increased scrutiny of LLIN quality is warranted.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17456-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-17456-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17456-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().