The Bayer CropScience News Room comprises press releases of the company and of Bayer AG, also including background information on events, conferences and key topics, free pictures to download, contacts and links.
  • Bayer Links
  • Country Sites
  • Internet Links
  • Conditional Links
  • Home
  • Malaria - A disease without borders

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Malaria - A disease without borders

World Malaria Day April 25 is a day of unified commemoration of the global efforts to provide effective control of malaria around the world.


Even today more children in Africa die from Malaria than from hunger or Aids.

Monheim - No one knows for sure how many people contract the disease but estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest that it afflicts up to 500 million people every year, one million die. In addition, as many as 30,000 visitors to tropical countries are infected annually.

In Africa even today more children die from Malaria than from hunger or Aids: Every 30 seconds a young child under the age of five loses its life because its body is too weak to resist the consequences of the tropical illness.


Adult malaria mosquito
Insecticide-treated mosquito nets - a good protection against malaria

Good protection against the disease offer mosquito nets, that keep the nocturnal insects at bay. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the widespread use of such nets could prevent up to 500,000 children per year from dying from malaria.

An even better protection can be achieved by using nets impregnated with an insecticide. “As soon as a mosquito comes into contact with the net, it absorbs the active ingredient and dies shortly afterwards”, says Dr. Karin Horn, researcher at Bayer CropScience and responsible for the development of new methods for malaria prevention by insecticide-treated nets.


Insecticide-treated mosquito nets offer a good protection against malaria mosquitoes.
The treatment of the mosquito nets is relatively simple: The product (K-O TAB) is suspended in water on-site. The net is then soaked thoroughly and dried afterwards. Only a short time ago this procedure had to be repeated several times. Today the second generation Tabs are available. The advantage of the K-O TAB 1-2-3: The impregnation lasts for about 20 washings - this means the net is usually impregnated for its whole lifetime.



The end of the development has, however, not yet been reached: “We have developed a process that allows the nets to be directly impregnated during their industrial manufacture. These nets are already been treated when they are purchased and protection lasts up to the end of their use “, says product developer Karin Horn.

Malaria endemic countries (Source: WHO)
The mighty adversary is a microscopic parasite
Malaria is caused by a parasite of the Plasmodium species transmitted from the blood of an infected person and passed to a healthy human by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells.
Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite. If not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs.
The malaria parasite became first known to the world in 1880 when Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran identified it in the blood of infected soldiers.
  • Add to FavoritesBookmark
  • PrintPrint
  • topTop