Enabling Business and Technologies to Contribute to the Control of Mosquito-Borne Diseases in Latin America

Aedes mosquito-transmitted illnesses, namely dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, have become a major burden of disease in Latin America and the Caribbean, where vector control programs have not been able to reduce the risk of disease transmission. IDRC and the Sao Paulo Research Foundation have partnered to promote and assess the role of small businesses in the development of new Aedes mosquito control technologies. Two research studies will take place in Mexico, where 60% of the territory, representing more than 50 million people, presents favorable conditions for the incidence of the Aedes mosquito. These studies will generate scientific evidence to support house screening as an effective and affordable vector tool in the city of Merida. It will also assess the efficacy, acceptability, and biosecurity of a paint that has the effect of prolonged residual insecticide in the city of Pochutla. Local partners Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán and CodeQuim, a vector control company, will implement the project. Senior researchers, small businesses, decision-makers and community representatives will be involved in both studies. Cost-effectiveness studies will assess the affordability of the proposed vector control tools. Subject to results, both the house screening and insecticide paint are promising tools to be applied in the context of integrated vector management. They are expected to contribute to national and/or state-level public health efforts to reduce the risk of Aedes-transmitted diseases and to be replicated in other Mexican cities. The project will document lessons learned about the role of small business in enhancing community access to vector control tools and assess the factors that influence their capacity to develop and speed up the time-to-market of Aedes control technologies.