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Referee Comments: Referee 2

Posted by PLOS_ONE_Group on 12 May 2008 at 20:40 GMT

Referee 2's Review:

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N.B. These are the comments made by the referee when reviewing an earlier version of this paper. Prior to publication, the manuscript has been revised in light of these comments and to address other editorial requirements.
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This paper is very well written. The motivation for the study is clear. The experimental design is appropriate and the statistics applied defendable. The results are interesting and a first in a low endemicity Anopheles arabiensis dominated malaria transmission zone. They results are discussed thoroughly and positioned well within the body of existing literature. The questions these results raise for ITN distribution policy in low malaria endemicity environments are considered in a balanced fashion.

The only omission is that the following references should be cited. They find a similar paradoxical relationship with prevalence for riparian communities, although in this case largely explained by net usage. How this differed from what was found here should be very outlined briefly.

Thomson M, Connor S, Bennett S, DAlessandro U, Milligan P, et al. (1996) Geographical perspectives on bednet use and malaria transmission in the Gambia, west Africa. Social Science and Medicine 43: 101-112.

Thomson MC, Dalessandro U, Bennett S, Connor SJ, Langerock P, et al. (1994) Malaria prevalence is inversely related to vector density in the Gambia, West Africa. Trans Roy Soc Trop Med Hyg 88: 638-643.