PREVENTING MALARIA & ZIKA
Prevention is the most effective way to deal with malaria and Zika.
Many tourists are familiar with taking anti-malarial medications before and during their trip, yet anti-malarial medications are difficult for someone living in the country to use effectively. The issue of both cost, medicine side effects, forgetting to take medication daily, and the difficulty in finding medicine cause this solution to be difficult for those living in these malaria-infected countries.
The most surefire way to prevent people from getting malaria is to focus on keeping them from being bitten in the first place.There currently is no way to prevent Zika other than avoiding or preventing begin bitten by mosquitos.
WAYS TO PREVENT:
The most common way to prevent mosquito bites is to use insect repellent made of DEET or Picaridin, second is indoor residential spraying and the third is insecticide-treated mosquito nets.
All three methods have been shown to be highly effective in preventing malaria but there are problems with some of them.
The first, insecticides, is a difficult solution because the insecticide must be applied every night. This is expensive and DEET use is not recommended as being safe for young children.
The second is indoor residential spraying. After a mosquito bites it usually rests upon nearby walls. Walls sprayed with insecticide are able to kill and deter mosquitoes. There are currently 12 insecticides approved for use on walls. An increasing problem, however, is a developing resistance of these insecticides by mosquitoes. These walls also have to be resprayed periodically.
The third solution is insecticide-treated mosquito nets. These are safe for children, inexpensive, and effective. This is the solution we are suggesting.
The nets are used over the bed each night and prevent mosquitos from getting near the people under it. The nets are pre-sprayed with a light insect repellent that kills any mosquitos which happen to land upon the net.
Mosquito Ministry 