Keep Out: Treated mosquito nets limit child deaths
By Nathan Seppa
By sleeping under chemically treated mosquito nets, children cut their risk of death almost in half, researchers in Kenya report. Their study, which included thousands of young children, bolsters the case that increased use of insecticide-coated netting can prevent malaria.
Treated nets repel mosquitoes that transmit malaria and fend off flies that carry other diseases. Carefully controlled studies had already shown that the nets could prevent disease in malarial areas of sub-Saharan Africa, but experts were unsure whether real-world use of treated nets would actually lower death rates.