disease prevention

Image source: Intellectual Ventures Lab

Malaria is a mosquito borne infectious disease that kills between 1-3 million people a year.  Ninety percent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa.   Malaria transmission is generally reduced through the prevention of mosquito bites with inexpensive mosquito nets, insect repellants, or insecticides.

Revealed at TED2010, we may have a new technology on our hands to aerially combat these insects.  Check out Kim Zetter’s article on Wired.com for description of the Death Star laser for mosquitos.

When the website of an "appropriate" technology takes the time to explicitly state the user requirements taken into condsideration when designing and creating the device, I become all the more interested in their product.

The team at JustMilk has done just that. Their goal is to prevent the transmission of HIV between mother and child.
"Our approach is to modify an existing nipple shield by adding a non-woven disk (cotton-wool) containing a common microbicide compound that inactivates the HIV without harming the baby.  This allows the mother to directly feed the baby rather than having to collect and heat the milk, which can result in social stigma."

I came accross the JustMilk team last year and had the pleasure of chatting with them. Since then, they have started researching the application of additional vitamins and minerals to the textile disk, which currently acts as the mechanism by which the breastmilk is filtered.

In addition to the six user requirements the JustMilk team has identified, I encourage you to read the testimonials recieved by professionals in HIV-affected regions. The information they provided to the team is enlightening, straightforward, and extremely thoughftul.