Insecticide-treated bed-nets can help in preventing malaria

Tanya Marchant of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tells Peter Goodwin about her research findings on how to improve the prevention of malaria.

According to her study—conducted jointly with colleagues from the Ifakara Health Institute in Dar es Salaam and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal looking at pregnant women and babies in Tanzania—insecticide-treated bed-nets (which prevent mosquitoes transmitting the malarial parasite) can be more effective if care and thought is given to how to distribute them and educate communities, and if the nets are treated with insecticide during manufacture, or at least before they are given to the public.