Better Mosquito Nets for Even Better Malaria Protection

Bed nets remain one of the most effective tools against malaria, and second-generation mosquito screens have been successfully tested in West African countries like Benin, preventing a rise in cases and deaths from the life-threatening disease.

“Insecticide resistance is one of the major challenges to combating malaria throughout the world,” explains Conor McMeniman, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Excitingly, this past year there’s been a strong recommendation for dual ingredients insecticide-treated bed nets with the purpose to break the most common mode of insecticide resistance in mosquitoes that transmit malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.”

The New Nets Project, an initiative funded by Unitaid and the Global Fund, tested the efficiency of two second-generation bed nets – the Interceptor G2 coated with chlorfenapyr and a standard pyrethroid insecticide, and the Royal Guard, which uses a combination of pyriproxyfen and pyrethroid. Between 2019 and 2022, some 56 million nets were distributed in West African countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire. The results show that the new bed nets are between 20% and 50% more effective than traditional ones in reducing mosquito exposure, thus reducing the risk of infection by up to 55%. These new nets prevented up to 13 million additional malaria cases, saving almost 25,000 lives.