[The Anopheles fauna and the transmission of human malaria in Kinshasa (Zaire)]

Abstract

A longitudinal epidemiological study of malaria and its vectors was conducted in Kinshasa. 264 night-bite collections on human bait (1,056 man nights) and 384 collections of the house-resting fauna were carried out from April 1989 to October 1990. The anophelian fauna was identified and inventoried, 7 Anopheles species were found: Anopheles gambiae, An. funestus, An. paludis, An. hancocki, An. counstani, An. brunnipes, and An. nili. A single species, An. gambiae s. l. is responsible for the transmission of malaria, it represents 93.27% of the anopheline fauna. The average number of anophele bites man day was 16.28 bites/man/night, it varied between 1 b/m/n in urban area to 26.05 b/m/n in semi-rural area. The average of the sporozoite index for An. gambiae was 3.3%, but it varied from 0% in the urban area to 6.52% in the semi-rural area. The entomological inoculation rate (h) was 197 infective bites per year. This rate fluctuated from 1 infective bite each 128 nights in urban area to 1.7 infective night-bite in semi-rural area. Other epidemiological index were also determined: the level of daily survival rate (p = 8.75 days), the vectorial capacity of 17.97 and the Macdonald's stability 3.5 bites on man taken by a vector during its entire lifetime.