A
Volume 4 | Issue 1 | January-March 2019
Compiled by:
Dr. Avantika Batish, working
as the Director Strategy and
Healthcare
at
International
Health
Emergency
Learning
and Preparedness. She is also a
guest faculty for MBA (HR) and
MBA Healthcare Management at
various B-Schools and is a soft
skills trainer.
than the old net type. The researchers
said that if they had scaled-up their
trial to the whole of Burkina Faso,
they would have reduced the number
of malaria cases by 1.2 million.
Female Anopheles mosquitoes are
increasingly becoming resistant to
the most common insecticides, called
pyrethroids, used to treat traditional
bed nets. Latest figures from the
World Health Organization (WHO)
show that after a dramatic decrease
in malaria since the start of the
millennium, progress has stalled, and
the number of people infected with
malaria is now going up in some areas,
with insecticide-resistant vectors as
one of the possible causes of this. The
researchers suggest the use of bed nets
with a combination of chemicals, to
be explored for areas where mosquito
resistance is a problem. The ingredients
on the nets kill more mosquitoes and
reduce the number of infective bites
than conventional nets treated only
with a pyrethroid. As it is less likely
that mosquitoes become resistant to
both chemicals in the combination
bed nets, they are considered a better
alternative to tackling malaria in
areas where mosquitoes have become
resistant to the single chemical used in
traditional bed nets. The latest figures
from WHO show that in 2016 malaria
infected about 216 million people
across 91 countries, up five million
from the previous year. The disease
killed 445,000 which was about
the same number as in 2015. Most
deaths were in children under the age of
five in the poorest parts of sub-Saharan
Africa.
Source: www.indiatoday.in
pyrethroid insecticide which repels
and kills the mosquitoes as well as an
insect growth regulator, pyriproxyfen,
which shortens the lives of mosquitoes
and reduces their ability to reproduce.
In areas with the new combination
bed nets, there was a 51% reduction
in the risk of a malaria-infective
mosquito bite compared to areas
with conventional nets. This study is
important because malaria control
in sub-Saharan Africa has stalled,
partly because the mosquitoes are
adapting and becoming resistant to
the pyrethroid insecticides used for
treating the old bed nets. A trial carried
out in Burkina Faso where the new
types of net, that had a pyrethroid plus
an insect growth hormone, was used
and it showed significant protection
novel mosquito net that
contains insecticides could
prevent millions of cases
of malaria, according to a Lancet
study. A two-year clinical trial in
West Africa involving 2000 children
showed that the number of cases of
clinical malaria was reduced by 12%
with the new type of mosquito net
compared to the conventional one
used normally. Scientists including
those from Durham University and
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
in the UK found that sleeping under
the new bed nets were 52% less likely
to be moderately anaemic than those
with a conventional net. Malaria
anaemia is a major cause of mortality
in children under the age of two.
The nets used in the study contain a
Drug-laced mosquito
net may prevent help malaria
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