The long rainy season is coming to an end in many places of western Kenya. This means the rains are reducing in intensity while the mosquito numbers are rising dramatically. The point is this, the rains leave behind many pools of water which are perfect mosquito breeding habitats and because there isn't much rain on daily basis, the mosquito eggs laid in the pools have opportunity to hutch into larvae which successfully develop into adult mosquitoes with little interference on the habitats as surface run off is reduced. Besides, the high temperatures around L. Victoria make it all conducive for these developments.

This explains the kind of trouble I have every night in my small house in Kisian village, western Kenya. I am always compelled to cloth every part of my body from toe to head to be a little safe from mosquitoes before I go under the protection of my bed net. However, the blood thirsty insects at times even bite through the clothing, serious!

In my house, I use bed net every night through out the year. But still, for the past four years I have had malaria attacks at least once every year. It is almost indisputable that much of mosquito feedings leading malaria transmission occur just before bed time for those who diligently use their bed nets. The situation gets worse in cases where people don't use the bed nets.


This have been my observation in a field situation in western Kenya. I do a lot of mosquito collection from people's houses in the early mornings. It is however very interesting the level of variability in the indoor mosquito densities among houses in the same locality. I have seen cases where two houses which are three meters a part, in one you get no vectors at all while in the other, you realize up to twenty vectors at a time. The houses being similar in structural design, the difference only comes in presence or absence of insecticide treated net (ITN). Mosquitoes somehow identify houses without ITNs and such they visit and have successful blood meals. This is very possible and has been established.

One would wonder why anybody would sleep without a bed net at such a time, unless there is none. The tragedy is that many people have bed nets in western Kenya but never use them. The greatest among such are young people who are school going. If you would ask why so, the answers give include silence, that is no reason at all, others complain of nets making the house hot and yet others talk of the difficulty of spreading the net every night.

Such impose serious draw back in the use of ITNs for protection for malaria control. It is time to begin thinking of other control strategies, may be integrated vector management?