Human behaviors: a threat for mosquito control?

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model showing how human behavioral responses to vector control measures can undermine their effectiveness, highlighting the importance of incorporating human factors into disease control strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a simple theoretical model that accounts for human behavioral responses, demonstrating potential negative impacts on mosquito control efforts.

Findings

Households may reduce protective behaviors when mechanical elimination techniques are used.

Reduced protective behavior can lead to an increase in mosquito populations.

Vector-control strategies must consider human behavior to be effective.

Abstract

Community involvement and the preventive behavior of households are considered to be at the heart of vector-control strategies. In this work, we consider a simple theoretical model that enables us to take into account human behaviors that may interfere with vector control. The model reflects the trade-off between perceived costs and observed efficacy. Our theoretical results emphasize that households may reduce their protective behavior in response to mechanical elimination techniques piloted by a public agent, leading to an increase of the total number of mosquitoes in the surrounding environment and generating a barrier for vector-borne diseases control. Our study is sufficiently generic to be applied to different arboviral diseases. It also shows that vector-control models and strategies have to take into account human behaviors.