Wheldrake, A, Guillemois, E, Arouni, H et al. (2 more authors) (2021) Textile testing to assess the resistance to damage of long-lasting insecticidal nets for malaria control and prevention. Malaria Journal, 20 (1). 47. ISSN 1475-2875
Abstract
Background
LLINs are susceptible to forming holes within a short time in use, compromising their ability to provide long-term physical protection against insect-borne vectors of disease. Mechanical damage is known to be responsible for the majority of holes, with most being the result of snagging, tearing, hole enlargement, abrasion and seam failure, which can readily occur during normal household use. To enable an assessment of the ability of LLINs to resist such damage prior to distribution, a new suite of testing methods was developed to reflect the main damage mechanisms encountered during normal use of LLINs.
Methods
Four existing BS EN and ISO standards used by the textile industry were adapted to determine the ability of LLINs to resist the most common mechanisms of real-world damage experienced in the field. The new suite comprised tests for snag strength (BS 15,598:2008), bursting strength (ISO 13938-2:1999), hole enlargement resistance (BS 3423–38:1998), abrasion resistance (ISO 12947-1:1998) and new guidance around the seam construction of LLINs. Fourteen different LLINs were tested using the new suite of tests to evaluate their resistance to damage.
Results
The resistance to mechanical damage of LLINs is not the same, even when the bursting strength values are comparable. Differences in performance between LLINs are directly related to the fabric design specifications, including the knitted structure and constituent yarns. The differences in performance do not primarily relate to what polymer type the LLIN is made from. LLINs made with a Marquisette knitted structure produced the highest snag strength and lowest hole enlargement values. By contrast, LLINs made with a traverse knitted structure exhibited low snag strength values when compared at the same mesh count.
Conclusions
Prequalification of LLINs should consider not only insecticidal performance, but also inherent resistance to mechanical damage. This is critical to ensuring LLINs are fit for purpose prior to distribution, and are capable of remaining in good physical condition for longer. The new suite of test methods enables the performance of LLINs to be assessed and specified in advance of distribution and can be used to establish minimum performance standards. Implementation of these testing methods is therefore recommended.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
Keywords: | Long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets, Snag test, Tear test, Abrasion resistance, Wounded bursting strength |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Design (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Jan 2021 13:37 |
Last Modified: | 27 Jan 2021 13:37 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMC |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/s12936-020-03571-4 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:170281 |