Survey of personal protection measures against mosquitoes among Australian Defense Force personnel deployed to East Timor

A questionnaire was completed by 955 Australian Defense Force soldiers from two battalion groups to determine their usage of mosquito repellents and bed nets during peacekeeping duties in East Timor. The survey showed that most soldiers (84%) used repellents, but only 19% used them daily. The soldiers used a number of repellent formulations; however, few soldiers used the Australian Defense Force deet (diethyl methylbenzamide) formulation containing 35% deet in a gel. Most soldiers preferred several commercial formulations, which contained 7 to 80% deet. The occurrence of mosquito-borne disease in soldiers was not affected by repellent usage, as the use of repellents was comparable between infected and noninfected individuals. The overall frequency of bed net usage differed in the two battalion groups. The occurrence of malaria in soldiers from one battalion group who did not sleep under a bed net every night of their deployment was significantly (p = 0.007) higher than those who did.