"So far the results are promising, they are positive, by the results achieved. There was a reduction in the mosquito population in those homes that were sprayed with the repellent, compared to those that did not benefit", explained today to Lusa Joaquim Domingos Lequechane, principal researcher of CIOB, from the Mozambican National Institute of Health.

The study, which also involves the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in Lisbon, and the Gorongosa National Park, had a sample of 1,410 people, corresponding to 302 households in the Tambara community, in Nhamatanda, and this Portuguese-made repellent was used to spray the walls of houses, measuring its level of effectiveness, namely as an "innovative alternative to insecticides", to which mosquitoes show resistance.

During the process, interior and exterior walls were sprayed with the repellent, to "scare away" the mosquito that transmits malaria and reduce its population.

The provinces of Sofala and Tete have the highest rates of malaria patients in Mozambique.

World Malaria Day is celebrated annually on April 25.

Funded in two years with 382 thousand euros by the Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation, from Portugal, and implemented by CIOB, this project is doing research in the province of Sofala, mainly in Tambara, to evaluate the protection conferred by the use of that repellent against malaria.

It is a repellent used for over 30 years and one of the most common among those applied to the body, being less toxic, but it is being tested as an environmental repellent, in homes and places with a high concentration of people.

"It is one of the most effective that exists and we have no restrictions for its use, even in people with health problems or allergic to insecticides, pregnant women, children, among others. This repellent works efficiently", said the researcher, based on preliminary data from the study.

According to the director of the National Malaria Control Program, Baltazar Candrinho, the number of cases of the disease increased, with 13 million cases registered in 2023, against 12.4 million in 2022, an increase of 17%, but the number of deaths from malaria tends to reduce, with 357 deaths registered in 2023, against 423 in 2022.

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