Malaria: making mosquito nets for Haitians.

[Walter Carrington]

Someone with contacts in Haiti has asked me about buying or making mosquito nets for sleeping to prevent malaria. These would be for an educational project that nuns are conducting for the poor in Haiti. At least one of the nuns has died of malaria and they are concerned about the children's exposure to malaria. The only disadvantage of heavy materials would be that someone (probably an elderly nun) would carry them as baggage. Sewing is one of the skills they teach, so the nets could probably be made down there.

I know that the best mosquito nets for use in the jungle used to be French military surplus mosquito nets that weighed 5 to 10 lbs; I'm pretty sure they were cotton. You would hang them over your bed.

Would cotton, nylon or polyester work better? I suspect that cotton would have the advantage of holding permethrin better. I'd worry about infants or toddlers chewing on a permethrin treated net, so maybe permethrin shouldn't be used.

What would be a good source of cheap durable mosquito netting?
Does anyone know of a good source of military surplus mosquito nets?
Does anyone have a good pattern for mosquito nets for home use in malarial regions?
Are there businesses that might contribute the material?

As an aside, when I was in the Peruvian Amazon, whole families would sleep on a single hammock (sideways) because they could only afford one mosquito net.

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