Half the houses in a West African village will get metal roofs, screened windows, and sealed eaves to see whether these simple changes stop children catching malaria. Malaria is transmitted indoors at night, and most houses in rural Africa have thatched roofs and open eaves that let mosquitoes in freely. Previous work showed that closing eaves and adding screens dramatically reduces the number of mosquitoes entering a house. This trial tests whether those modifications—combined with metal roofs and screened air bricks that let hot air escape while blocking insects—actually prevent clinical malaria in children. If the modified houses protect the children living in them, the results could accelerate a shift already underway across Africa: the gradual replacement of thatched roofs with metal ones. Adding screens and sealing eaves during that transition would cost little extra but could cut malaria transmission for millions of people. The research does not aim to develop a new drug or vaccine—it tests whether a change in the built environment, riding a wave of cultural change already happening, can make houses themselves a barrier against disease.
View original technical description
Malaria remains one of the greatest threats to global public health, with 207 million cases of falciparum malaria and 627,000 deaths occurring in 2012, with over 80% of deaths occurring in Africa. More than 80% of malaria is transmitted indoors at night, so the number of malaria mosquitoes which enter a house is critical for getting the disease - with people living in 'leaky' houses being at most risk. We have shown that closing the eaves (the gap between the top of the wall and the roof) and screening a house can reduce dramatically the number of malaria vectors entering a house. Here we propose to find out whether we can protect children against malaria by modifying half the study houses so that they (1) have a metal roof, (2) closed eaves, (3) screened doors and windows and (4) screened-air bricks which allow the warm air to rise out of the house, but not let any mosquitoes indoors. The other study houses will be left with thatched roofs and open eaves and the children in these houses will serve as a comparison group. Over the past thirty years a silent revolution in house design has been happening across Africa. The traditional thatched-roofed houses are being replaced steadily by metal-roofed houses as the continent develops. We hope to ride this wave of cultural change and further improve the design of houses to make them healthier to live in. Improved housing has the potential to improve the lives of millions of people across sub-Saharan Africa.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know