Impact of road construction on malaria incidence and mosquito abundance in Abeokuta Metropolis

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact of road construction on the incidence of malaria cases reported at Primary Health Centres (PHCs) as well as vector abundance in Abeokuta South and North Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Ogun State. Mosquito larvae were collected from randomly selected four road construction sites and were raised into adults for identification. Records of malaria cases for pre-construction period (2010, 2011) and construction period (2013) were also retrieved from 12 PHCs (6 for each LGAs). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics with SPSS Version 16.0. The frequency of malaria cases recorded for construction period was higher compared to  non-construction period at both LGAs. During the construction period, children within the age-range 0-5 years constituted the highest frequency of malaria cases in all the health facilities. A higher occurrence of malaria cases was recorded during the raining season compared to the dry season. Two species of mosquitoes (Anopheles spp. and Aedes spp.) were identified from the collected larvae, with Anopheles spp being the most abundant 66 (71.1%). Of the 66 emergent Anopheles spp, 46 (69.7%) were females, while 20 (30.3%) were males. Aedes spp. recorded a frequency of 26 (28.3%), with 14 (53.8%) females and 12 (46.2%) males. This study emphasizes the role of construction activities in the provision of additional breeding sites for mosquitoes which in turn increases malaria transmission rate especially during the raining season. This suggests that people that reside in areas where construction activities are on-going are at a higher risk of malaria infection and other mosquitoes borne diseases.

Keywords: malaria, mosquitoes, construction, larvae, season.