Assessment of availability and use of mosquito repellents in Dar es salaam region

Objective. Assessment of availability , use, laws and regulations governing mosquito repellants in Dates salaam Methodology . A cross Sectional descriptive study was conducted to assess the availability use of mosquito repellants available in Dar es Salaam region. Study involved both questionnaire and visiting, pharmacy supermarket and shops Results .The report revealed that mosquito repellents are available in supermarkets shops and pharmacies. However more than 97% of supermarkets shows contains mosquito repellant ,l60 (80%) pharmacies contain mosquito repellents while 185 (48.7%) shops contain mosquito repellents However study shows that (83%) of mosquito repellants contain diethyltoluamide as active ingredient while (8.3%) contains pyrethrin and 8.3% contains eucalyptus oil .Total of 300 students participated in this study , of which 229 (76.3%) said never used mosquito repellents while 76 (23.7%) said they have ever used mosquito repellant. it shows that 55.0 % of people who said they don’t know mosquito repellant .97 ( 32.3%) said that mosquito repellant are used to kill mosquito while ( 95)3l.7% said that mosquito repellant are used to repel mosquito (40).13.3% said that they don’t know what are they used for. This shows that knowledge of people regarding the use of mosquito repellants among the student is poor .Also study revealed that most people obtain these products from Pharmacies .178 (59.3%) obtained from pharmacies , (76) 25.3% from shops 35(l1.7%) from market and11 (3.7%) from supermarket. Therefore very few people obtain these products from supermarkets . Its shows that 101(36.9%) students used x pel, 97 (35.4%) students use medsoft while mosquito coil was least used mosquito repellants (4.1%). Study shows that for the time being mosquito repellents is not controlled by any institution. However study revealed that 63.6% are unregistered while 36.4% are registered as pesticides Conclusion Study reveals that mosquito repellents are available in pharmacy ,shops and supermarket . The most common used mosquito repellants are x-pel and medsof