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Review
. 2020 Oct 20;5(4):161.
doi: 10.3390/tropicalmed5040161.

Vector-Focused Approaches to Curb Malaria Transmission in the Brazilian Amazon: An Overview of Current and Future Challenges and Strategies

Elerson Matos Rocha  1 , Ricardo de Melo Katak  1 , Juan Campos de Oliveira  1 , Maisa da Silva Araujo  2 , Bianca Cechetto Carlos  3   4 , Roberto Galizi  5 , Frederic Tripet  5 , Osvaldo Marinotti  6 , Jayme A Souza-Neto  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Vector-Focused Approaches to Curb Malaria Transmission in the Brazilian Amazon: An Overview of Current and Future Challenges and Strategies

Elerson Matos Rocha et al. Trop Med Infect Dis. .

Abstract

In Brazil, malaria transmission is mostly confined to the Amazon, where substantial progress has been made towards disease control in the past decade. Vector control has been historically considered a fundamental part of the main malaria control programs implemented in Brazil. However, the conventional vector-control tools have been insufficient to control or eliminate local vector populations due to the complexity of the Amazonian rainforest environment and ecological features of malaria vector species in the Amazon, especially Anopheles darlingi. Malaria elimination in Brazil and worldwide eradication will require a combination of conventional and new approaches that takes into account the regional specificities of vector populations and malaria transmission dynamics. Here we present an overview on both conventional and novel promising vector-focused tools to curb malaria transmission in the Brazilian Amazon. If well designed and employed, vector-based approaches may improve the implementation of malaria-control programs, particularly in remote or difficult-to-access areas and in regions where existing interventions have been unable to eliminate disease transmission. However, much effort still has to be put into research expanding the knowledge of neotropical malaria vectors to set the steppingstones for the optimization of conventional and development of innovative vector-control tools.

Keywords: Amazon; Anopheles darlingi; Brazil; Plasmodium; challenges; control; conventional; malaria; mosquito; novel; strategies; vector.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Timeline of the main events concerning malaria transmission and control in the Brazilian Amazon.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Main challenges for the development of novel vector-focused malaria control tools. Created with BioRender.com.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of the main anopheline species known to occur in the Brazilian Amazon, with emphasis in Anopheles darlingi, the main malaria vector in the region. The mosquito species distribution was carried out according to a database previously published by [28].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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