Dear Reader

As with all first issues it seems appropriate to celebrate something. In this issue we would like to celebrate the suc-cess of Bayer Environmental Science’s premier brands in the Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) market. K-O TAB® and K-O TAB® 1-2-3, since their invention and first manufacture and sales 10 years ago, have become the preferred products for the treatment of new mosquito nets and bundling with new nets, as well as for the re-treatment of mosquito nets in use in the field in Sub Saharan Africa and worldwide.

This unique, patented formulation of deltamethrin was conceived and invented in South Africa, and is still manu-factured in South Africa truly an African product.

Bayer Environmental Science wants to celebrate the fact that as of the beginning of 2008, 100 million K-O TAB® tablets have been produced and distributed in the fight against malaria!

If one accepts the data summary of the recent Cochrane Review (Lengeler, C. Insecticide-treated bed nets and cur-tains for preventing malaria. Cochrane Database of Sys-tematic Reviews 2004, Issue 2) and simply extrapolate that to the 100 million K-O TAB® tablets supplied by Bayer En-vironmental Science, then we have potentially assisted in saving the lives of 100,000 children in Sub Saharan Africa (assuming each K-O TAB® treats one bed net).

Not only has Bayer Environmental Science been supplying malaria vector control products for the past 20+ years, but we have also been involved in various initiatives around vector control.

• Bayer was in the forefront of providing space sprayproducts and training to Mauritius and Reunion during the Chikungunya outbreak in 2006.

• Bayerhasovertheyearssuppliedvariousproductsforthe control of Glossina transmitted sleeping sickness and nagana. These have included insecticides and in-sect growth regulators (IGRs) for target treatment, and space sprays for adult fly control.

• Training materials for the use and treatment of ITNswere first developed by Bayer, and later adapted for use by other organizations such as WHO.

• Bayerhasalwaysprovidedbackupforitsvectorcontrolproducts in the form of training, brochures, manuals and field visits.

• BayerisakeymemberoftheInnovativeVectorControlConsortium(IVCC),whichislargelyfundedbytheBill&Melinda Gates Foundation, and is a major partner in re-searchwithintheIVCC.

• Bayerproducesonanannualbasis thewell-respectedPublic Health Journal. Recent issues have focused on malaria ITNS the development of Bayer’s K-O TAB® 1-2-3 (Issue No. 17) and Insecticide Resistance issues and man-agement in vector control (Issue No. 18).

• Bayerhasinrecentyearssponsoredthreeinternationalworkshops on the management of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors. Rotational strategies with Bayer in-secticides for resistance management are now a well-established practice in for example, Moçambique and Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea.

Bayer Environmental Science has also embarked on two other initiatives involved with malaria. The first of these, the KicK OuT MAlARiA™ program was mooted in September 2004. In this program Bayer uses the enormous popular-ity of football on the African continent to address issues of mosquito net usage and re-treatment, with special empha-sis on children. Football tournaments have been held in a number of African countries.

FOR MORE inFORMATiOn On ThiS cOMic AnD ThE BAyER KicK OuT MAlARiA™ iniTiATivE plEASE viSiT ThE wEBSiTE www.KicKOuTMAlARiA.cO.zA

READERS wiShing TO KnOw MORE ABOuT BAyER EnviROnMEnTAl SciEncE AnD iTS vEcTOR cOnTROl pRODucTS cAn viSiT ThE wEBSiTE www.BAyERvEcTOR.cO.zA