IMAGE CREDIT: CHATGPT
Across rural Africa, mothers can often be seen with brightly coloured clothes tied tightly around their backs, holding their babies close as they farm, cook, and walk to the market.
These clothes–known locally as lesus–are a symbol of care and culture. They have been used for centuries. But here is the news: they may also become a symbol of protection against one of Africa’s deadliest diseases–malaria.
A new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that when these baby wraps are treated with a common insect repellent called permethrin, they can dramatically reduce malaria infections among young children.
The findings offer hope for a low-cost, culturally accepted innovation that could save thousands of young lives across sub-Saharan Africa.
Malaria remains one of the leading causes of death for children under five in Africa, responsible for nearly 600,000 deaths in 2023, according to the World Health Organization. Although bed nets and indoor spraying have saved millions of lives, progress has stalled. Mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides, and many now bite outdoors or during the day–when nets offer no protection.
The researchers built their idea around a simple cultural reality. In much of sub-Saharan Africa, mothers spend hours each day carrying infants on their backs, using large cloth wraps. By treating those wraps with permethrin–the same chemical used in military uniforms and bed nets–they hoped to create a barrier that would repel mosquitoes during the day.
To test this, the team launched a double-blind, randomised trial involving 400 mother-and-child pairs in rural Uganda. Half received wraps treated with permethrin, while the others got wraps soaked only in water. All families also received new insecticide-treated bed nets, ensuring everyone had nighttime protection.
Over 24 weeks, mothers visited health clinics every two weeks. If a child developed a fever, they were tested for malaria. The results were striking.
Malaria cut by two-thirds
Children who used the permethrin-treated wraps had about two-thirds fewer malaria infections than those using untreated wraps. The malaria rate was 0.73 cases per 100 person-weeks in the treated group, compared with 2.14 cases in the control group–a reduction of around 66 percent.
Hospital admissions for malaria were also notably lower among the treated group (3.5% versus 8.5%).
Importantly, there were no serious side effects. Some children developed mild rashes, but none required medical care or left the study.
Why it matters
What makes this innovation powerful is its simplicity. It doesn’t require new infrastructure, costly drugs, or complex behavior changes. Mothers already use these wraps daily–the only addition is treating the cloth with a safe, widely available insecticide.
“Given the alignment with existing cultural practices, treated wraps could provide an additional level of protection against malaria,” the authors wrote.
The approach could also complement vaccines and seasonal malaria drugs, which are less effective in very young children or in areas with year-round transmission. Permethrin-treated wraps may help bridge those gaps, offering protection from the first months of life.
The trial used monthly re-treatment of wraps to keep the chemical effective, but that process could be difficult to sustain on a large scale.
Researchers say there is a need to explore factory-treated fabrics that remain effective for months–or even a year–without reapplication.
This paper leaves me thinking: the next great advance in malaria prevention might not hang in a lab but on mother’s shoulders.
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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
AI Helps Personalize Malaria and TB Treatment for Africans: scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) system that could help design safer and more effective doses of malaria and tuberculosis (TB) drugs for African patients. Because Africa has the world’s most genetically diverse populations, medicines developed elsewhere don’t always work the same way.
Researchers used AI to predict how genes common in Africans affect how the body processes drugs. By combining machine learning with computer models that simulate the human body, researchers identified gene–drug links that could guide better dosing for medicines like artemether and rifampicin. The approach could make treatments more precise and equitable, ensuring drugs are tailored for Africa’s unique genetic diversity. [Reference, Nature Communications]
Locked Borders, Moving People: Despite border closures and lockdowns, migration across sub-Saharan Africa barely slowed during COVID-19, a new study finds. Analyzing data from 34 countries, researchers discovered that while travel bans briefly curbed movement, long-term migration patterns remained steady.
Poverty, conflict, and climate pressures continued to drive people to move, proving migration’s resilience even in crisis. Case studies from Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic revealed mixed but short-lived impacts. The paper argues that the pandemic acted as an added trigger rather than a deterrent to migration and calls for stronger, regionally coordinated policies—rooted in evidence, not imitation of Western models—to balance public health measures with people’s need to move. [Reference, Humanities and Social Science Communication]
Where Are the Women? A study from Ethiopia’s Amhara region reveals a sharp decline in birth rates and an imbalance between men and women. Researchers found that for every 100 women of reproductive age, there were 125 men—and among young adults, the gap widened to 167 men per 100 women. The total fertility rate dropped to 3.44 children per woman, down 25% from 2016 national figures.
Experts link this trend to the mass migration of young women seeking domestic work in the Middle East, which reduces births and alters community demographics. The findings show how migration, separation from partners, and changing lifestyles are reshaping family structures and fertility in rural Ethiopia. [Reference, Scientific Reports]
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