Usefulness of community participation for the fine temporal monitoring of house infestation by non-domiciliated triatomines

The irregular presence and low abundance of wild triatomines inside domiciles make their detection more difficult than that of domiciled species, so that vector surveillance and evaluation of Chagas disease transmission risk are more challenging. We compared timed manual searches, considered as the gold standard, with community-based collections, for their efficacy at monitoring domestic and peridomestic infestation by non-domiciliated Triatoma dimidiata, and community-based collection was the most sensitive and cost effective. Scaling up community participation permitted investigation of fine temporal variations in infestation by T. dimidiata in over 700 houses. We confirmed a large seasonal infestation during March-July, but weekly and daily collections showed a rather stochastic pattern of bug presence in the houses, even during this period. These data are of key importance for the successful implementation of vector control, and community participation is a method of choice for sustained monitoring of infestation by non-domesticated triatomines.