Health News
Net and insect repellent greatly reduces malaria infection
Jun 29, 2009, 3:09 GMT
Berlin - A study conducted in Bolivia's Amazon region has found that the best protection against malaria infection is to sleep at night under an impregnated mosquito net with insect repellent applied to the skin.
A combination of the two provides 80 per cent more protection from malaria infection than using a net on its own, according to the study which has been published in the German medical journal Aerzte Zeitung.
Four thousand people living in Bolivia's Amazon region took part in the study. All of them slept under a net impregnated with the insecticide pyrethroid. Half of them were given an insect repellent lotion containing eucalyptus while the other half were given a placebo.
In the placebo group the rate of infection in over 15-year-olds was five times higher than in the group that had applied insect repellent to their skin.
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