House Screening - Biological and Environmental Control of Disease Vectors - page 122

force behind uptake of control measures such as
sleeping underneath insecticide-treated nets
(Adongo et al ., 2005).
In much of the tropics traditional housing
implies rural housing, built by the prospective
occupants often following designs used by their
forefathers and employing materials sourced
almost exclusively from the surrounding
environment. These are typically timber,
bamboo, grasses, palm fronds, earth and stone.
Mud bricks (made of clay, sand, water and
straw), either sun-dried or fi red in a local kiln,
are also common. Traditional thatch roofi ng
prevails, but is being replaced in some rural
communities by corrugated iron panels and
other metal roofi ng. Floors are typically pounded

earth or sand. Of course the choice of materials
and, to a lesser extent, the dimensions of housing
vary between dif erent parts of the tropics, but
nevertheless there are common features: the use
of degradable organic materials, small size, poor
ventilation, open eaves and/or gaps around
doorways, windows small or absent altogether
(Gamage-Mendis et al ., 1991; Charlwood et al .,
1995; Fanello et al ., 2003; Kumar et al ., 2004)
(see also Fig. 7.1).
The events that lead to construction of
houses like those shown in Fig. 7.1 create
conditions suitable for reservoir or intermediate
hosts such as rats, and for disease vectors such
as mosquitoes, triatomine bugs and fl eas. The
selection and processing of materials, clearing

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 7.1. Housing in the tropics with a common theme - ease of vector entry. (a) Open eaves and open
doorway, Bramharanga, Orissa State, India (courtesy Mr Seth Irish, LSHTM); (b) thatched roof, open-
structured walls, Honduras (courtesy Dr Samuel Rice-Townsend (Stanford/Boston)); (c) curtained
doorways and air bricks, Kampala, Uganda (courtesy Prof. Steve Lindsay, LSTHM); closed eaves but
access above doorway, Kunjo, The Gambia (author's own photograph).