Bed nets and repellent prevent malaria

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Using both insect repellent and insecticide treated bed nets provides greater protection against mosquitoes carrying malaria, a study in Bolivia found.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the National Bureau of Malaria Control at the Ministry of Health in La Paz, Bolivia, say 36 percent of the population of the Americas live in areas with a risk of malaria -- 87 percent in the Amazonian subregion of South America.

The researchers had all 4008 study participants based in 860 households in rural villages and peri-urban districts in the Bolivian Amazon sleep under insecticide treated bed nets, but one group also used a plant-based insect repellent, and the second a placebo.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, found an 80 percent reduction in episodes of p.vivax -- the malaria parasite -- in the group that used both insecticide treated bed nets and insect repellent.

"The findings from this study tell us that treated bed nets should not be used as the only means of treating malaria in areas where vectors feed mainly in the evening," Nigel Hill, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said in a statement.