INITIAL FIELD STUDIES IN UPPER VOLTA WITH DICHLORVOS RESIDUAL FUMIGANT AS A MALARIA ERADICATION TECHNIQUE. 1. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

Abstract

Laboratory and simulated field tests have shown that dichlorvos, a volatile insecticide, can be prepared in a solid formulation which releases the dichlorvos vapour over a period of several months at a relatively uniform rate high enough to kill adult anopheline mosquitos but low enough to have no effect on man and the higher animals.A field experiment is in progress in Wakara, Upper Volta, to evaluate the residual fumigant technique under practical field conditions. Chemical, biological, toxicological and epidemiological data obtained during the first nine months indicate that the method produced dichlorvos vapours in a concentration effective against mosquitos for 3 to 5 months per treatment, that the occupants of the treated dwellings showed no detectable effects from the insecticidal vapours, and that the malaria rates were reduced by 38%-55% among the population of the treated village as compared with a nearby untreated control village.