Improving fitness to face arboviral outbreaks in West Africa: development of community-led approaches for vector surveillance, control and risk prediction in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Dengue and other viruses transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti are a growing problem in West Africa with increasingly frequent outbreaks. Control of the mosquito is the most effective way to protect humans. This project, which will run from 2024 to 2028 is based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso where regular dengue epidemics have occurred in recent years. To carry out the research project, we have formed a collaboration between Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM, UK), Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo (Burkina Faso) Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé – Direction Régionale de l'Ouest (Burkina Faso), Spanish National Research Council (Spain), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (France), University of Glasgow (UK) and King's College London (UK). We propose to develop a community-based approach for arbovirus outbreak prevention and response. We will collect data on the abundance and distribution of Aedes aegypti in different environments, their genetics and behaviour, human exposure to bites and circulating virus levels to model the forces governing dengue dynamics and develop an improved index for virus transmission risk. Additional work will test the effectiveness of digital surveillance of mosquitoes using a mobile app to determine a potential role for citizen science. Trials will be conducted of different tools to control mosquito adults and immatures, including a large-scale community-embedded programme to determine the effectiveness of reducing mosquito breeding sources. Capacity building is embedded throughout, with the aim of developing skills in trial design and analysis, social science, community-based programme development and implementation, genetic diagnostics and genomics, serosurveillance, entomology and statistics/modelling. Community engagement and involvement activities will play a crucial role throughout the project activities and have a dedicated work package supported by researchers based both in Burkina Faso and in northern partner institutes. We believe that new evidence on arbovirus epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa and a new generation of local specialists is urgently needed to fill the skills gaps from the bottom upwards and to equip African health systems with the experience, knowledge, and motivation to respond effectively to arbovirus outbreaks.