Mosquitoes predominantly bite people around the feet and ankles, and protecting the lower limbs of individuals result in up to 65% reduction in mosquito bites.
In this project, we are exploiting this mosquito behaviour and use footwear as a platform to release highly effective wide-area spatial mosquito repellents, creating full-time protection against both day-biting and night-biting mosquitoes at individual and household level.
Day-biting Aedes mosquitoes, which transmit most of the arboviral infections that the world is least prepared to combat, i.e. Zika, Dengue, Yellow fever and Chikungunya, are largely non-responsive to LLINs and IRS.
Moreover, no vaccines and no reliable diagnostics for field use are available for many of these arboviruses, and therefore mosquito control remains the main intervention. Yet, the aquatic habitats of these mosquitoes are often small, scattered, cryptic, temporary and sometimes indoors, hence difficulty of larval source management.