Ensayo de campo de una nueva formulación de repelente tipo jabón contra mosquitos

Abstract

A new type of mosquito repellent containing 20% deet and 0.5% permethrin, formulated as a soap, was evaluated by comparison with a commercial repellent available in Colombia and to untreated controls. The evaluation was carried out in the field by measuring the percent reduction of bites on humans by Anopheles species with emphasis on the principal malaria vectors An. darlingi. and An. nuñeztovari, as well as Aedes aegypti and Culex sp. Both repellents gave a high degree of protection, ranging from 88 to 99% for the soap-like repellent and 82 to 100% for the commercial repellent. There are statistically significant differences between both repellents with An. darlingi (p<0.05), but these differences do not have any practical important. The results indicate that both repellents are equally effective for Anopheles, Culex and Aedes aegypti for up to 4 hours (Over 80% reduction), but the soap-like repellent has a longer residual effect for anophelines, up to at least 7 hours. None of the 14 people involved in the evaluation complained of stickiness or disconfort with the repellents tested.