Long-acting Spatial Emanators / Repellents (LASER)

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Malaria Prevention; Malaria; Malaria Transmission

Treatments: Device: Guardian; Device: IRS with Pirimiphos - methyl

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT07387341

101190818

Details and patient eligibility

About

Malaria is a major problem in western Kenya, particularly around Lake Victoria. Whilst current prevention methods like bed nets and vaccines help to reduce malaria burden, additional tools are needed to better protect communities from malaria. The investigators will test a new technology called LASER Guardian™, which are devices that release chemicals to keep mosquitoes away from homes. The investigators will conduct a large study involving 69 villages in western Kenya over two years. Each village will be randomly chosen to receive one of three approaches: the new LASER devices, indoor residual spraying with insecticide (a method already known to work), or the standard prevention methods currently used. All villages will continue to receive the usual malaria prevention tools provided by the Kenyan government, including bed nets and vaccines. In villages receiving LASER, the investigators will install 2-3 small device inside structures once a year for two years. In villages receiving IRS, the investigators will spray the inside walls of homes with insecticide once a year for two years. The investigators want to find out if the LASER devices can reduce malaria better than current methods alone, and whether they work as well as indoor spraying. To do this, the investigators will carry out surveys of the community every six months over two years (four rounds in total), testing about 4,485 children between ages 1 and 15 from approximately 3,450 households in each survey to see how many have malaria. The investigators will also work with local health clinics to track malaria cases, study mosquitoes to understand how the interventions affect them, talk with community members about their experiences, and calculate the costs of these different approaches. This study will help us understand whether LASER tool can effectively protecting against malaria in Kenya and other African countries where malaria is common.

Enrollment: 22,815 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 1 to 15 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

The inclusion criteria are:

1. Child aged 1-15 years
2. Usual resident (a person who has been residing in the survey area for at least the past 4 months) who was present in the sampled household on the night before the survey
3. Agreement of adult or parent/guardian (of children) to provide informed consent
4. Agreement of child aged 12 years or older to provide assent

The exclusion criterion is:

1. Child not at home after 3 attempts

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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22,815 participants in 3 patient groups

LASER

Experimental group

Treatment:

Device: Guardian

IRS

Experimental group

Treatment:

Device: IRS with Pirimiphos - methyl

Standard control

No Intervention group