Malaria is spread by one mosquito that bites between dusk and dawn. Everything that works against it works by breaking that one contact, and the measures are cheap, unglamorous and effective in that order.
What actually works
- Sleep under a treated net, every night, all year. Not only in the rainy season. The mosquito that carries malaria bites at night, so the net is the single biggest thing.
- Tuck the net in under the mattress on all sides. A net hanging loose is decoration.
- Clear standing water around the house weekly: tyres, tins, buckets, blocked gutters, the bottom of flower pots. Mosquito eggs hatch in a bottle cap of water.
- Screen windows where you can, and close them before dusk.
- Indoor spraying where a campaign offers it. Let the team in; it lasts months.
If you are pregnant
Take the preventive doses offered at antenatal visits, and sleep under a net from the first month. Malaria in pregnancy harms the baby even when the mother does not feel very ill, and it becomes severe faster than it would otherwise.
Children under five
They carry most of the deaths. In the north, seasonal preventive treatment is given to young children during the transmission months. Take every round offered, even if the child looks perfectly well. That is the point of it.
What does not work
- Taking antimalarial tablets "to prevent" malaria without a prescription. It does not protect you and it builds resistance.
- Relying on coils or sprays alone. They help for an evening; the net covers the hours you are asleep.
- Waiting for the rains to start before hanging the net.
