Recruiting pastoralists to find and treat dry-season water bodies with larvicides to control mosquito-borne diseases

Malaria is responsible for 21,000 deaths in Tanzania each year. In the dry season, controlling mosquito larvae (which live in water) is not workable because water bodies are hard to locate. Pastoralists (nomads who raise livestock on natural pasture) know where these water bodies are, since they rely on them to water their cattle. Ifakara Health Institute will recruit pastoralists to find and then treat mosquito breeding sites with the eco-friendly and human-safe insecticide pyriproxyfen (PPF). Livestock nutrient supplements will be an added incentive to pastoralists. This social innovation of integrating pastoralists into a malaria control strategy will enable the efficient treatment of larval hotspots in rural Africa, while improving livestock health and the economic situation of pastoralist tribes.