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Impregnated mosquito nets:
the best way to stop mosquitoes biting
Karin Horn knew when she started studying veterinary medicine that her working life would be dominated by small animals. What she didn't know was that these animals would be so small that they would be invisible to the naked eye. Life at university focused more on dogs, cats and guinea pigs; once she had qualified she moved on to fleas, lice and, increasingly, ticks – initially in the Institute for Veterinary Parasitology at Berlin's Free University, later as part of a development aid project working on tick control in livestock.
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| Outreach: A worker with the National Malaria Control program shows local women how to impregnate mosquito nets. |
But the work wasn't really challenging, the veterinarian recalls. It didn't become more interesting until she started working with the single-celled organisms that cause tropical diseases. The most challenging of all was Plasmodium falciparum, the agent that transmits malaria.
This has been the central theme of her work at Bayer, where she has been for over ten years. She works at the Agricultural Center in Monheim, the headquarters of Bayer CropScience. Dr. Karin Horn is part of the Environmental Science unit, and her special field is malaria prevention. To be more precise, she works on innovative ways of controlling the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit the causative agent of malaria to man.
Bayer's main focus in this field since 1996 has been highly specific insecticides based on pyrethrum, a toxin that occurs naturally in chrysanthemums. "Numerous changes have been made to the chemical structure of these insecticides, so they are only distantly related to their natural counterpart," says Horn. The products have a rapid action against almost all insects – including Anopheles mosquitoes – following contact or ingestion.
"Personal protection" is a concept that is very closely related to this work. The aim here is to protect people in affected areas by using mosquito nets impregnated with low doses of an active substance. Horn explains: "As soon as the nocturnal female mosquitoes land on the nets, they come into contact with the active compound and die soon afterwards."
It is relatively simple to impregnate a mosquito net. The product is dissolved in water, the net is soaked thoroughly in the liquid, and then left to dry. Until recently, this procedure had to be repeated every time the net was washed. Bayer Environmental Science has now developed a new product that lasts for 20 washes, providing long-term protection against the mosquitoes that transmit malaria.
Nowadays, technical innovations from the Environmental Science development laboratories are making life much easier. "We helped to develop a method that, for the first time, allows nets to be impregnated as part of the manufacturing process. These nets are ready to use when they are purchased, and provide protection throughout their service life," says Horn.
So how does the malaria prevention expert protect herself against this horrible disease when she travels to far-flung places to carry out field trials? "That's easy," she replies seriously. "I use an impregnated net because I know it provides reliable protection."
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