Abstract

Objective: To determine the infestation profile by performing ovitrap surveillance in four types of residential areas in central zone of Shah Alam, Selangor. Methods: 600 ovitraps were exposed for 4 days in intradomiciliary environments within 20 residential areas including independent houses, inter-connected houses, commercial buildings and mixed houses areas. The ecological conditions of the surrounding environment were observed and recorded. The distributions and abundances of the Aedes mosquitoes were presented in terms of positive ovitrap index (POI) and mean eggs per trap (MET). One-way ANOVA test was used to determine the association between the type of residential areas and the number of ovitrap with eggs and the egg count. Results: The result implied that Seksyen 7 has the highest reading of both ovitrap index and egg count (POI = 86.21%, MET = 41.68 eggs). There was no significant difference in the POI and MET of Aedes mosquitoes between the type of housing areas (P > 0.05). The surrounding environmental conditions were believed to be the main influence of the abundance and distribution of the Aedes mosquitoes in Shah Alam. Unhygienic conditions were observed in all type of residential areas. These included the abandoned kitchen utensils and flower pots stored at the backyard which lead to collected stagnant water that later served as the favourable places for female Aedes to oviposit. Conclusions: The key to effectively control the dengue outbreak is to have an advance understanding to all the high potential transmission areas or habitat which are generally the areas with the densest human and vector population.

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