Researchers have found that a new kind of mosquito net substantially increases protection against malaria-carrying insects.
The discovery was made by a team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in a two-year study involving more than 15,000 children in Tanzania.
Scientists found that nets incorporating a chemical called piperonyl butoxide blocked the natural defences of mosquitoes against standard insecticides, reducing malaria cases by more than a third.
The World Health Organization is now recommending the use of the new nets.
Malaria causes well over 400,000 deaths a year, nearly all of them children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.
-BBC
