Adult Control II
Adult Control II
The Puerto Rico Vector Control Unit (PRVCU), the Ponce Health Science University (PHSU) and the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDH) established a collaborative project funded by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to prevent dengue using house screens against Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Puerto Rican housing. The implementation of the study started in August 2023 and the evaluation will be over 2 years. The study site is in Ponce, Puerto Rico through the Communities Organized for the Prevention of Arboviruses (COPA) project; a cohort study of 38 clusters in Ponce with over 5,000 participants. The recruitment goal is 500 households: 250 households as intervention group with screen installation in doors and windows and 250 households as control group.
The recruitment process involves scheduling a household visit to evaluate existing doors and windows in the home. Over 360 calls were made, with a total of 211 contacted participants and 22 refusals. Preliminary results from 5 of the 19 clusters selected showed that 72 households were evaluated for eligibility and a total of 59 were eligible in which n=31 (12.40%) were assigned to y a treatment (screening installed) group and n=28 (11.20%) for control group.
Screened houses had about 1/3 as many mosquitoes compared to unscreened homes (1.0 female Ae. aegypti/home vs 2.89 female Ae. aegypti/home). Thus, the risk of contracting dengue in screened homes is much lower than in unscreened homes.