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Raphaël N'Guessan, PhD
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Dr Raphaël N'Guessan

Medical entomologist, PhD

  • Assistant Professor London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  • Head of the centre VCPEC, Institut Pierre Richet, Bouaké

Thirty years measuring what truly protects people from malaria, from the experimental huts of Bouaké to the laboratories of London.

Collaborate Request expertise

A shelter against the mosquito

Nets, insecticides, the walls of a home. Since 1997 he has tested in real conditions the tools that keep Anopheles mosquitoes away from sleeping families.

When protection cracks

Mosquitoes have learned to survive pyrethroids. Nets that once killed them no longer suffice, and the reasons had to be found.

Resistance is written in genes

The kdr mutation, detoxifying enzymes, multiple resistance. He described these mechanisms in mosquitoes from Benin and Côte d'Ivoire, then evaluated the new chemistries that get around them.

A body of work cited worldwide

articles
126
citations
7,195
countries
40
All publications
Portrait of Dr Raphaël N'Guessan

Between Bouaké and London

His work follows one question, what still protects people when mosquitoes adapt. He documented how pyrethroid resistance undermines nets and spraying in Benin, evaluated the first chlorfenapyr nets, and took part in the trial of the lethal house lure published in The Lancet. Back in Côte d'Ivoire in 2016, he created the VCPEC-IPR, inaugurated in 2019 and certified compliant with the OECD Principles of Good Laboratory Practice in 2023.

Full biography

Four questions, one thread

Each line of work answers the same need. Find out what still protects people when mosquitoes adapt.

Insecticide resistance

How Anopheles mosquitoes survive pyrethroids, from the kdr mutation to detoxifying enzymes, and what that resistance costs malaria control in the field. His 2010 review on the subject is among the most cited in the discipline.

  • Pyrethroid resistance in African anopheline mosquitoes: what are the implications for malaria control?Trends in Parasitology · 2010
  • Reduced Efficacy of Insecticide-treated Nets and Indoor Residual Spraying for Malaria Control in Pyrethroid Resistance Area, BeninEmerging infectious diseases · 2007
Publications on this theme

Nets and new chemistries

Evaluating the nets that still kill resistant mosquitoes, with chlorfenapyr, piperonyl butoxide and pyriproxyfen, from bioassay to experimental hut and cluster randomised trial.

  • The activity of the pyrrole insecticide chlorfenapyr in mosquito bioassay: towards a more rational testing and screening of non-neurotoxic insecticides for malaria vector controlMalaria Journal · 2015
  • A Chlorfenapyr Mixture Net Interceptor® G2 Shows High Efficacy and Wash Durability against Resistant Mosquitoes in West AfricaPLoS ONE · 2016
Publications on this theme

Indoor residual spraying

Measuring what spraying the walls of homes really achieves against malaria in Africa, and which insecticides keep working once mosquitoes have adapted.

  • Systematic review of indoor residual spray efficacy and effectiveness against Plasmodium falciparum in AfricaNature Communications · 2018
Publications on this theme

Homes and new tools

Turning the house itself into a trap. Eave tubes and screening, the lethal house lure tested in a cluster randomised trial published in The Lancet, and attractive targeted sugar baits.

  • Impact and cost-effectiveness of a lethal house lure against malaria transmission in central Côte d'Ivoire: a two-arm, cluster-randomised controlled trialThe Lancet · 2021
  • Indoor use of attractive toxic sugar bait in combination with long-lasting insecticidal net against pyrethroid-resistant Anopheles gambiae: an experimental hut trial in Mbé, central Côte d’IvoireMalaria Journal · 2020
Publications on this theme

From experimental huts to villages

All projects
2016 to 2019, then follow-up studies

The lethal house lure

Malaria in children fell from 2.29 to 1.43 cases per child per year (hazard ratio 0.62)

See the project 2015 to today

Nets that kill resistant mosquitoes

In Benin, Interceptor G2 killed 71% of resistant mosquitoes against 20% for a standard net, and still 65% after 20 washes

See the project 2020 to 2023

Attractive targeted sugar baits

Adding chlorfenapyr baits to treated nets raised the mortality of resistant mosquitoes from 19% to 39%

See the project

The most cited work

Articles that changed how resistance and vector control are understood, ranked by citations.

All publications

From Bouaké to London, and back

Full career
  1. 1993

    First steps at Institut Pierre Richet

    After a first training in civil engineering, he joins the Institut Pierre Richet in Bouaké as a laboratory assistant in charge of the insectary and mosquito rearing, then from 1998 to 2001 as the technician in charge of insecticide tests. First article in 1997.

  2. 2003

    Benin with the LSHTM

    Research assistant of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the CREC in Cotonou, Benin, where experimental huts and a laboratory are built for the evaluation of new vector control tools.

  3. 2006

    Master's degree in London

    MSc in Control of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

  4. 2009

    PhD and the LSHTM in West Africa

    Doctorate in medical entomology from Wageningen University. Until 2015, research fellow and representative of the LSHTM in West Africa, he creates and runs a laboratory for new tools against insecticide-resistant malaria vectors and trains technicians and junior researchers from Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Europe.

Co-authors in forty countries

Nearly every article is written with partners abroad. The United Kingdom, Côte d'Ivoire, the United States, France and Benin lead the list.

  • United Kingdom99
  • Côte d'Ivoire43
  • United States36
  • France30
  • Benin27
  • Switzerland24
  • Tanzania13
  • Burkina Faso12

Articles co-signed with each country, out of 126

Articles per year, 1997 to 2026

1997200020052010201520202025
Articles per year, 1997 to 2026

Two ways to work together

Collaborate

Trials, joint projects, grant applications, evaluation of new vector control tools in experimental huts.

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Request expertise

Advice for WHO, national malaria programmes and manufacturers on resistance and product evaluation.

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