Urban malaria in Accra, Ghana: transmission risk and influence of irrigated vegetable farms
Abdul Rahim Mohammed Sabtiu, Isaac Kwame Sraku, Christopher Mfum Owusu-Asenso, Yaw Akuamoah-Boateng, Richard Tettey Doe, Emmanuel Nana Boadu, Judith Dzifa Azumah, Nana Aba Setorwu Eyeson, Anisa Abdulai, Godfred Amoateng, Simon Kwaku Attah, Fred Aboagye-Antwi, Yaw Asare Afrane
BMC Infectious Diseases
Urban Farm DB summary
A 2025 entomological study in Accra, Ghana, that sampled mosquitoes at ten sites grouped into five categories — irrigated urban farming (IUF), low, middle and high socioeconomic status, and peri-urban — to compare vector distribution, biting behaviour and infectivity. Human landing catches and Prokopack aspiration collected 41,747 mosquitoes in total; 48.63% (10,466/21,520) of Anopheles gambiae s.l. came from the irrigated urban farming sites, far above peri-urban (18.06%), high (16.42%), middle (13.74%) and low (3.15%) socioeconomic sites. Indoor-caught An. gambiae s.l. had a higher sporozoite infection rate (4.56%, 16/351) than outdoor (3.78%, 9/238; χ² = 6.78, P = 0.009), and Tuba, an irrigated site, had the highest rate at 6.41% (10/156). The authors conclude that irrigated urban agriculture drives urban malaria transmission in Accra and that indoor control plus management of immature vector habitats in farming areas is needed — evidence of a public-health trade-off in which irrigated growing creates vector habitat alongside its food and livelihood benefits.