Tropes

ec.europa.eu 2015 000076.txt

#The eaves of death for malaria mosquitoes EU-funded researchers have developed three new tools to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes. They are now working to bring their low-cost innovations to market quickly a boost to the global battle against this deadly disease. Over the past two decades global efforts to prevent malaria and treat its victims have contributed to reduce infection dramatically and save millions of lives. Even so, each year around 200 million people catch malaria, and 600 000 die from the disease, mostly children and women in Africa, according to the World health organization. Prevention through insecticide-treated bednets and indoor sprays, is one of the best ways to win the battle. But mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides potentially reversing the gains made so far. In response, the EU-funded MCD project has developed three new weapons against them a special coating that transfers insecticides effectively to mosquitoes landing on it, insecticide-laced ave tubesto direct them to the coating, and a bednet patch. The project began work in December 2012 and is now negotiating with a manufacturer in Tanzania to mass produce these low-cost devices and distribute them, says project coordinator Bart Knols of In2care. The netherlands-based research company specialises in developing products to control disease-transmitting insects. have been working in the field of malaria research for the past 22 years, says Knols. have seen never an idea move so fast from early research in the lab to field testing in the real world to potential commercialisation. This is simply amazing. Tubular protection In2care and CTF2000, another project partner, originally developed netting for trapping pollen. This has been repurposed for mosquito control using the netting coated with insecticide at one end of tubes that are placed in the walls of the households. The tubes are to be inserted into the walls under a building roof, its eaves, so they are called'eave tubes'.'Hungry malaria mosquitoes looking to feed on blood tend to enter such openings, naturally following the scent of humans and the trail of carbon dioxide they breathe out. The mosquitoes end up on the netting, and make contact with the insecticide. Eave tubes are potentially more effective than indoor spraying, says Knols. They better prevent mosquitoes from entering a house. For indoor spraying to work, mosquitoes must first enter a house and land on a wall covered with insecticide, leaving them time to infect a person. ith these tubes, insecticide is applied only to a small area the netting, he explains. his means a major reduction in insecticide use, by about 95, %which is better for people health and for the environment. The team initially tested the eave tubes in 2013 in large outdoor cages in Tanzania. Within a night, two-thirds of the mosquitoes released were killed after contact with the tube netting. In November 2013, MCD outfitted 20 houses with eave tubes in Igombati, a small Tanzanian village. To date, six months later, the coating has remained an effective mosquito killer and it can be considered a competitive alternative to indoor spraying, which in addition needs to be done twice a year, says Knols. Recently the team has started to modify another 1 100 houses with eave tubes as part of a larger test. The researchers have developed also an alternative to the eave tubes the'eave brick, 'where the plastic with the insecticide-coated netting replaces a brick removed from a wall. The team calculates a typical household would spend about#1 per person per year over three years for the'eave tubes or bricks'.'ee close to becoming competitive with bednets, especially when taking into consideration that eave tubes protect everyone in the house and not just those sleeping under a net, Knols adds. Smart patches Moreover, MCD has developed also the mart patchfor bednets. The team research found that a mosquito first point of contact on a bednet is usually just above the head and torso of a sleeping person. The researchers have created a piece of insecticide-treated netting, a patch that, placed on this area of the bednet, would kill 62%of the mosquitoes in the room within a night, as shown in experiments in a large outdoor cage in Tanzania. Using such a patch, about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, can turn an untreated net into one that starts killing mosquitoes without the need to coat the whole bednet with insecticide. Since the patch is placed on top of a bednet, people are less likely to come into contact with insecticide. This opens the way for more powerful alternatives to be used insecticides that remain effective against mosquitoes. The project partners made up of three small and medium-sized European companies, a health institute in Tanzania and a US university plan to commercialise the eave tubes the coating, and the smart patch before the end of the project in November 2015. Negotiations are currently underway with a manufacturer in Tanzania. Knols says the team is also looking for additional funding to conduct a field test of the eave tubes and bricks on up to 7 000 houses one that would yield solid scientific evidence that these tools can be deployed broadly to reduce the burden of malaria. Article Nederlandse vinding doodt malariamug in Nieuwsuur (in Dutch) Project details Project acronym: MCD Participants: Netherlands (Coordinator), Germany, Belgium, Tanzania, United states FP7 Proj. N°306105 Total costs:##6 576 806 EU contribution:##5 212 772 Duration: December 2012-November 201 o

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