Malaria in Côte d'Ivoire wet savannah region: the entomological input.

A two years study has been carried out in Alloukoukro, a traditional wet savannah village in the central region of Côte d'Ivoire. The productive breeding sites of malaria vectors are natural puddles and some man-made shelters around the village. 576 man-nights of capture have identified Anopheles gambiae s.l. and An. funestus as vectors of malaria in the study area. The low densities of An. phaorensis and An coustani implies that their possible role in transmission is very negligible. An. gambiae s.l. was the predominant species throughout the year with a mean of 19.2 b/m/n in 1991 and 13.6 b/m/n in 1992. The densities of An. funestus increased gradually during the rainy season and reached its peak values towards the end of the season. An. gambiae s.l. assures transmission throughout the year. An. funestus maintains a seasonal transmission which is spread over seven months. In 1991, each person would have received an average of 264.5 infected bites altogether with 204.5 infected bites from An. gambiae s.l. and 62 infected bites from An. funestus. In 1992, there would have been 196.5 infected bites per man with 160 and 36.5 infected bites respectively from An. gambiae s.l. and An. funestus. This study has shown that in wet savannah areas, the rainy season spreading almost all over the year, allows the breeding sites to retain water much longer and thus, to keep alive a more important residual vector populations capable to ensure malaria transmission even during the dry season. The great majority of infected glands (96.7%) were observed between 11 p.m. and 04 a.m. So, the large scale use of treated bednets has been therefore strongly recommended as key measure against malaria transmission in this area.