Spraying indoor may protect you from dengue during this season

Attention people! Another method by which you can protect yourself from the potentially deadly disease Dengue during this season is by spraying insecticides inside your houses.

As the currently available dengue vaccine is only partially effective, researchers suggested that indoor spraying of insecticides has the potential to be a key part of those prevention efforts.

Dengue infects between 300 and 500 million people every year, causing symptoms in around 100 million individuals and severe disease in half a million.

mosquitos, which live in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Numerous insecticides are known to kill adult and immature Aedes mosquitos,

Exposing Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which spreads the virus, to the insecticides can be challenging, since the insects tend to rest in hidden, indoor areas.

To determine the effectiveness of indoor spraying in preventing dengue, Olaf Horstick from the University of Heidelberg, Germany and colleagues searched seven research databases for existing literature on indoor residual spraying (IRS) and indoor space spraying (ISS).

They then systematically reviewed papers that were identified pertaining to the effect of IRS and ISS on dengue.

Out of seven studies--three on IRS and four on ISS--all concluded that there was some effect on either mosquito populations or dengue case numbers.

The strength of evidence was strongest for the effect of IRS and ISS on adult mosquito populations, with multiple studies reporting no adult mosquitos surviving the indoor treatments.

More research is needed on indoor spraying, the team concluded, although the review results are very promising, particularly in comparison with other Aedes control methods.

The findings appear in journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.