Malaria, sleeping sickness, dengue fever and other insect-borne diseases continue to present grave health risks to humans and their livestock. This Biovision project is employing a new approach: Animals act as a kind of “natural decoy” to attract insects, which are killed using a newly developed, environmentally friendly insect repellent. This will reduce the number of disease vectors and help protect humans and animals.
With this project, Biovision aims to improve animal health and reduce the risk of human infection. Our local project partner, icipe, is relying on a participatory research approach that involves the local population in the research.
We also inform the local population of correlations and risks associated with infectious diseases. Among other activities, we want to design and build a model “Healthy Home” using locally available materials, in which simple measures significantly reduce the number of pathogens in and around the house.
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Internationales Insektenforschungsinstitut Icipe (Kenia)
The project is meant for different target groups and works using a holistic approach. Participatory health research has been successful: through our 40 community meetings and training sessions, we have reached 1733 people in the regions of Busia and Kwale. Participants learned more about infectious disease risks and possible protective measures. Additionally, 10 health officers in the communities were trained to reduce infections and use the insect repellent.
Through the model houses, 239 representatives from the villages learned how they can better protect their health with simple measures in and around the house. These include a latrine and a more efficient stove that uses charcoal briquettes instead of wood.
The insect repellent specially developed for this project significantly reduced disease vectors in laboratory tests, but when applied in practice in the villages, this could not be confirmed. We will next evaluate the experiences and analyze the causes to find out why the project did not have the expected effect. Our partner organization is also conducting a household survey on the use of insect repellents and preparing similar trials in western and coastal Kenya.
The training sessions with the model houses were met with great interest. Together with community health officers, icipe will now plan upcoming training courses and print necessary materials.
