Background: Population resettlement has been considered among factors that may increase risk of malaria transmission. This study reports, the impact of resettlement on malaria incidence and entomological indices among communities resettled in suburbs of Jimma town, southwestern Ethiopia.
Methods: A cohort of 604 study participants (302 resettlers and 302 non-resettlers) was monthly followed-up from September to November 2013 using active case detection. Moreover, longitudinal entomological study was conducted from June to November 2013. Anopheline mosquitoes were collected using CDC light traps and pyrethrum spray catches. Sporozoite ELISA was performed to determine Plasmodium infection rates.
Results: Overall, 112 malaria cases were recorded during the three-month follow-up, of which 74.1% of the cases were from resettlement villages. Plasmodium falciparum incidence from resettlement and non-resettlement villages was 52.5 and 14.5/1,000 person-months at risk, respectively. Resettlement villages were three times at higher risk of Plasmodium infection (OR = 2.8, 95% CI: 1.22-6.48). Anopheles gambiae s.l. was the predominant (86.6%) of all the collected anopheline mosquito species. Plasmodium sporozoite rate in the resettlement and non-resettlement villages was 2.1 and 0.72%, respectively. Plasmodium falciparum entomological inoculation rate (EIR) for An. gambiae s.l. in the resettlement and non-resettlement villages was 13.1 and 0 infective bites/person/night, respectively. Both sporozoite rate and EIR were significantly higher in the resettlement villages (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: Resettled communities were at higher risk of malaria infection as compared to non-resettled communities. Special attention should be given to malaria control interventions during resettlement programmes.