Volatile pyrethroid spatial repellents for preventing mosquito bites: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Volatile pyrethroid spatial repellents (VPSRs) can prevent mosquito-borne diseases including malaria and dengue fever, but the use of varied evaluation methods has resulted in a lack of clarity regarding their protective efficacy (PE) against contact with mosquitoes. This systematic review and meta-analysis consolidates the entomological evidence base on the PE of VPSRs against Anopheles, Aedes, and Culex mosquitoes and different test methods used.

Methods: We identified studies completed between January 2000 and September 2023 by searching through databases, conference abstracts, and personal correspondences.

Complete series method (CSM): a convenient method to reduce daily heterogeneity when evaluating the regeneration time (RT) of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs).

Background: "Regeneration time" (RT) denotes the time required to obtain a stable mortality rate for mosquitoes exposed to insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) after three consecutive washes of a net in a day. The RT informs the wash interval used to artificially age ITNs to simulate their lifetime performance under user conditions (20 washes). RT was estimated following World Health Organization (WHO) longitudinal method (LM) procedures.

Temperature, mosquito feeding status and mosquito density influence the measured bio-efficacy of insecticide-treated nets in cone assays.

Background: The WHO cone bioassay is routinely used to evaluate the bioefficacy of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) for product pre-qualification and confirmation of continued ITN performance during operational monitoring. Despite its standardized nature, variability is often observed between tests. We investigated the influence of temperature in the testing environment, mosquito feeding status and mosquito density on cone bioassay results.