Kenyans making wedding dresses from malaria nets

Bill Easterly flags this article from Kenya’s Daily Nation: Mosquito net manufactures are teaming up with the provincial administration and village elders in several parts of Kenya in an effort to apprehend and prosecute people who use the products for purposes other than covering beds. According to Dr Elizabeth Juma, who is the head of ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

Bill Easterly flags this article from Kenya's Daily Nation:

Bill Easterly flags this article from Kenya’s Daily Nation:

Mosquito net manufactures are teaming up with the provincial administration and village elders in several parts of Kenya in an effort to apprehend and prosecute people who use the products for purposes other than covering beds.

According to Dr Elizabeth Juma, who is the head of malaria control under the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, there has been evidence of people turning the nets into fishing gear especially in Nyanza Province. Now a different group has discovered another lucrative business venture, and are using the nets to make wedding dresses.

Easterly notes: "Net promoters seem to consistently underestimate the challenge of spreading the scientific knowledge about the risks of getting malaria from mosquito bites."

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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