In a splendid example of how fashion and science can be brought together to create fashionable outfits with life saving properties, an African designer and a US scientist have innovated a hooded bodysuit that can protect wearers from malaria.
The fabric used in the outfit has insecticides for warding off mosquitoes infected with malaria. The binding of the mosquito repellant and fabric is made at the nano level using metal organic framework (MOF) molecules.
The MOF allows the fabric to be loaded with up to three times more insecticide than usual fibrous nets, which lose their repellant properties in about six months time.
The new garment can be worn throughout the day and it would provide extra protection from malaria causing mosquitoes as it would not dissipate easily like skin-based repellants.
Despite being preventable and curable, Malaria causes about 655,000 deaths annually across the African continent.
Both Frederick Ochanda, postdoctoral associate in Cornell's Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design and a native of Kenya, and Matilda Ceesay, a Cornell apparel design undergraduate from Gambia, who collaborated on the project, have lost a family member to malaria.
Ochanda and Ceesay hope that the MOF technology used in the apparel will inspire innovations in the manufacturing of mosquito nets.
Ochanda is currently working on creating a temperature and light sensitive MOF fabric that would offer better protection at nights, when malaria causing mosquitoes are more in numbers.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
marketing@alchempro.com
