The chapter explores the drastic drop in the effectiveness of malaria prevention nets, falling from 100% to 17% after 2012 and 2013, attributed to changes in net coating process using polyfluoroalkyl substances. Researchers collaborated to uncover that Vestigard's alterations in bonding insecticide led to this decline.
For years, it seemed like Papua New Guinea was on a course to stamp out malaria. In 2010, the total number of suspected malaria cases in Papua New Guinea was 1.7 million. By 2015, the number had been cut nearly in half. Experts believed the country could see a malaria-free future as soon as 2030. But then, something changed—and cases started climbing again, as quickly as they had fallen.
In today’s episode of the Big Take podcast, Bloomberg health care reporters Anna Edney and Michelle Fay Cortez unpack how a single business decision made by the world’s biggest manufacturer of bed nets reversed years of work to eradicate malaria in a country that—at least for a while—was on track to beat it.
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