Research from U-C Riverside has led to a new product that can make humans invisible to mosquitoes. The small, wearable patch provides another tool to protect humans against mosquito-borne diseases.
Mosquitoes can detect humans by tracking the carbon dioxide we exhale.
A few years ago, UC Riverside Associate Professor Anand Ray discovered molecules that can disrupt mosquitoes' ability to smell carbon dioxide. He sold his discovery to a start-up company that's found a way to put the compounds into a wearable patch.
Ray said mosquito-borne illnesses are a major cause of death in the tropics.
"Even when people are not dying, they suffer. These diseases cause so much suffering, that is has massive costs to their productivity," Ray pointed out.
The new patch is said to be effective for up to 48 hours. It will be tested in Uganda, one of the countries plagued by malaria.
