The World Health Organisation (WHO) has, for the first time in 25 years, recommended a new category of malaria prevention tools — spatial repellents — as an innovative way to fight insect-borne diseases.
The policy recommendation paves the way for broader global use of products like SC Johnson’s Guardian™ and Mosquito Shield™, which repel mosquitoes from enclosed and semi-enclosed spaces, reducing bites and lowering disease transmission.
Spatial repellents release an active ingredient into the air, forming a protective barrier against mosquitoes. They can be hung in homes, schools, and other semi-enclosed spaces, are low-cost, easy to use, and can last up to one year.
“This important milestone comes after more than 10 years of work and over $100 million invested in development, testing, and deployment,” said Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson. “From day one, this has been a not-for-profit initiative to combat diseases that threaten hundreds of millions of people,”
Beneficiaries
Clinical trials in Indonesia, Peru, and Kenya showed that proper use of spatial repellents can reduce disease risk by up to 33 percent. The WHO’s endorsement follows years of testing funded in part by Unitaid and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
SC Johnson recently opened two high-speed manufacturing lines in Nairobi capable of producing 20 million units of Guardian annually, with an additional production line in Argentina set to start next year. The company says it will work with governments and humanitarian organisations to distribute the repellents in malaria-prone regions.
Richard Allan, CEO of The MENTOR Initiative, called the development “a real game changer,” noting that over a billion people could benefit from the new tools.
Malaria remains one of the world’s deadliest diseases, claiming more than 600,000 lives each year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Experts say the WHO’s approval of spatial repellents could help protect vulnerable communities that lack access to other prevention methods such as treated mosquito nets and indoor spraying.
