Fighting malaria with scarves

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Can treating traditional scarves worn by migrant workers along the Thai-Cambodian border with insecticide help reduce the incidence and transmission of drug resistant malaria? This is a question that the researchers David Sintasath, of the Malaria Consortium in Thailand, and Sylvia Meek, former director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, and now director of the Malaria Consortium, are about to explore, thanks to a $100 000 (£68 000; €80 000) grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project is one of 78 similar ones to receive a grant awarded in the latest round of the foundation’s “grand challenges explorations.”

Tachi Yamada, president of the foundation’s global health programme, said, “We are convinced that some of these ideas will lead to new innovations and eventually solutions that will save lives.”