The authors predict that the widespread use of treated nets in Africa could save the lives of about 500,000 children each year. Another study found that among approximately 5,500 Tanzanian children under age 5, the incidence of malaria dropped from 85 percent to 39 percent in villages that had used the nets for 2 years and to 25 percent in villages that had done so for 3 years, says Clive Shiff of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore. Zulfiqarali Premji of the Muhimbili Medical Centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Shiff, and their colleagues reported these findings in the October 1995 Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. Simply closing down local mosquito baths helps too, Barnard points out. So the natural approach to reducing mosquito problems is advancing on two fronts.
Some researchers are engineering and mass-producing sophisticated biological weapons.
Other insect foes are focusing their efforts on simply keeping people out of the reach of the mosquito's sting.