Vector-borne diseases threaten the health of populations around the world. While key interventions continue to provide protection from vectors, there remains a need to develop and test new vector control tools. Cluster-randomized trials, in which the intervention or control is randomly allocated to clusters, are commonly selected for such evaluations, but their design must carefully consider cluster size and cluster separation, as well as the movement of people and vectors, to ensure sufficient statistical power and avoid contamination of results. Island settings present an opportunity to conduct these studies. Here, we explore the benefits and challenges of conducting intervention studies on islands and introduce the Bijagós archipelago of Guinea-Bissau as a potential study site for interventions intended to control vector-borne diseases.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Novel control strategies for mosquito-borne diseases'.

媒介传播的疾病威胁着世界各地人口的健康。虽然关键干预措施继续提供针对病媒的保护，但仍然需要开发和测试新的病媒控制工具。通常选择整群随机试验进行此类评估，其中将干预或对照随机分配到集群中，但其设计必须仔细考虑集群大小和集群分离，以及人员和媒介的移动，以确保足够的统计数据功率并避免结果污染。岛屿环境为进行这些研究提供了机会。在这里，我们探讨了在岛屿上进行干预研究的好处和挑战，并介绍了几内亚比绍的比热戈斯群岛作为旨在控制媒介传播疾病的干预措施的潜在研究地点。

本文是主题“蚊媒疾病的新型控制策略”的一部分。