Life
Smelly socks tested in Tanzania as way to prevent malaria
Insecticide-treated bed nets, millions of which have been sold or given away in Africa in the past decade, have a long-acting repellant, permethrin. In many malaria-endemic areas, people spray the inside walls of dwellings with insecticide that kills mosquitoes when they land.
Bed nets have cut childhood deaths by about 20 percent in malaria-endemic areas. Modeling suggests that traps could reduce malaria transmission about as much as bed nets do in villages where half the households use them.
Despite its low-tech appearance, the strategy Okumu is testing is far more complicated, and potentially fraught with hazard, than it seems.
A key question is where to place traps. They need to be close enough to dwellings to attract mosquitoes, but not so close that they will increase people’s exposure to the disease-carrying insects. Okumu’s research suggests that the traps should be at least 100 feet from houses.
Another question is how many traps a village might need. Okumu has calculated the minimum number at 20 per 1,000 people, although in places where malaria transmission is especially intense and in certain village configurations, 130 traps per 1,000 people might be needed.
Despite these challenges, Singer said, projects such as these are what Grand Challenges Canada is looking to support. It is providing $388,000 for the research, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is providing a similar amount. The Gates Foundation gave Okumu $100,000 for preliminary studies, as well.
“We are inspired by people like Fredros,” Singer said. “We strongly believe that innovators in low-income countries are best situated to solve their own problems. He is an African researcher with an African innovation for an African problem.”
Okumu, who is a doctoral candidate at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said he is “working on the premise that this is a global problem — a global problem in a flat world.”
He said he doubted that there might be an application for his strategy — should it prove successful — in non-malarious places such as the United States. A pair of socks from a recent 10K run at the corner of a patio will only briefly divert mosquitoes. They’ll soon find the bare legs under the picnic table.
“Mosquitoes are still fairly clever animals,” he said. “What they are looking for is blood. They might be attracted to the socks, but they will not spend much time there.”
Source: The Washington Post
