Aedes Mosquitoes distribution and risk of Yellow Fever transmission in Gurage Zone, Southwest Ethiopia

Objective: To determine the distribution and specific species of Aedes mosquitoes present in the Gurage zone, Southwest Ethiopia, following the yellow fever outbreak in the area. Methods: An entomological cross-sectional study design was used with simple random sampling techniques following the yellow fever outbreak report starting from February to April, 2020 for two months.  Results: A total of 748 houses were investigated, of these 621 (83%) houses were found to be positive for larvae/pupae. From a total of 168 water containers inspected, 78 (46%) were productive for larvae/pupae collections. The highest house index was recorded in Doba (95.7%) and Shumuro (95.3%) followed by Wodesha (89.5%), Woyera (89%), Terbieishikure (75%), Genideterbe (67%) and Lankatore (65% Kebeles. The most preferred breeding sites of Aedes were found Enset (Ensete ventricosum) with Container Index (CI), Breatue index (BI)) of (65.5%, 19), (54.8%, 13.7), (46.7%, 6.5), (45.7%, 13.7), (42.9%, 3), (44.4%, 12) and (19%, 4) in Genideterbe, Wodesha, Shumoro, Doba, Terbieishukure, Woyera and Lankatore Kebeles, respectively. From a total of 293Aedes mosquito, 209 (71.3%) were collected from false banana. The mosquito species of Ae. simpsoni complex 199 (67.9%), Ae. africanus 40 (13.7%), Ae. aegypti 27 (9.2%) and Ae. vittatus27 (9.2%) were collected from all types of breeding sites.