incognito natural insect repellent

Malaria and Mosquitoes in 2010

Currently mosquitoes and other insects are at record levels all over Europe including the UK. This is because the cold winter did not kill off that many of the numbers and the remaining bugs have had less competition. Also, the wet and warm near tropical weather is ideal for breeding. So, if you are going abroad you will need more insect  repellant than usual -especially anywhere around the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Scotland, and Sweden.

Insects populations are growing at an alarming rate and there is now a 42% chance that malaria will return to the UK today! in the next few years the risk will be well over 50%. This is according to a recent lecture Professor Steve Lindsay gave at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Apart from the sting and your reaction to a bite, mosquitoes carry a wide range of pathogens and their consequent diseases e.g. malaria and dengue. 700 million people a year pick up a disease from a mosquito and mosquitoes are responsible for the deaths of 1 in every 17 people currently alive (this figure is probably higher now – Taubes G, “A mosquito bites back” NY Times 24-8-1977).

All these are on the increase worldwide due to drug, pesticide and insecticide resistance, climate change, deteriorating health systems, armed conflict and natural disasters. It is not all about mosquitoes either, diseases are caused by many other insects too such as 20,000 different species of wasp. Other dangerous insects include: ticks, tsetse fly, hornets, fleas and non-see-ums that can all cause serious problems for humans.  There is currently a big outbreak of ticks and other insects in Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey. incognito repellent will protect you against all Ticks as well as insects.

A knock-on effect of global warming, is that mosquitoes have become more prevalent, they have begun to carry diseases into areas previously thought safe. e.g. West Nile fever and malaria outbreaks in the USA, chikungunya and malaria outbreaks in mainland Europe. According to professor Curtis at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine “it is only a matter of time before malaria is back in the UK.”

This is what happened to our founder Howard Carter: “On my first trip to India back in 1997 I was recommended to take a malaria prophylactic and was prescribed paludrine and avloclor by the competent Trailfinders Travel Clinic in London.

“I went to Cochin, Kerela, over New Year – a low risk area at a low risk time of year. I used a Deet-based repellent that had been recommended to me by Boots in the UK – needless to say, I still got bitten by mosquitoes! I received many bites, mainly around my ankles, as it was too hot for socks. Sure enough I contracted malaria. This was during a holiday weekend, so no doctor was available. I was delirious with a high temperature of 103 degrees, hot and cold sweats, vomiting and diarrhoea.

After a nightmare 1000 mile journey consisting of a 12-hour high-speed bus ride down steep hills followed by a train and finally a flight from Trivandrum back to Mumbai, I received medical treatment. If malaria is treated within two weeks it does not re-occur. I consider myself lucky that I caught it in time.”

There are no vaccines to prevent dengue and many other insect-borne illnesses.  No anti-malarial drug is 100% effective either. However, incognito’s new formulation, used in conjunction with an impregnated mosquito net, is clinically proven to protect against malaria. Its a personal choice whether you still want to take anti-malarials or not.

Mosquitoes attack the animals that are most prevalent in their ecosystem. Therefore, in the Arctic they tend to leave humans alone in favour of Polar Bears! Mosquitoes have been around for over 120 million years – a lot longer than humans! In that time they have mutated into around 3,500 different species. We are particularly vulnerable to them. They can speedily build resistance over just a few generations, mutating in order to tolerate a chemical that was once poisonous to them. So they have been getting stronger and stronger.

Slowly but surely building up resistance to toxic chemicals like Deet, which is why this pesticide is not as effective as 50 years ago when it was first mass produced.

>The side effects from some of the anti-malarials are often worse than contracting malaria itself, many travellers choose not to take them and carry a malaria antidote with them instead, which stops those anti malarials being over used. Now there is another option as it is possible to avoid getting bitten in the first place.

Of the reported 515 million cases of clinical malaria occurring in 2002 at least 300 million were acute cases, which resulted in 1,272,000 deaths!

So if you value your life or at least your holiday, it is imperative to protect yourself against insect bites.

So how do I avoid being bitten?

Diseases & Mosquitoes

As you can see from this table mosquitoes have a shift system going on so it is important to protect yourself, not only from mosquitoes but other insects day and night.

Pesticides

The trouble with pesticides is that apart from making the insects stronger –only the strongest or mutants survive this toxic chemical onslaught- the land gets polluted and many people die from pesticide poisoning; mainly agricultural workers through coming into contact with these deadly chemicals.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) between 1-3% of these workers suffer from acute pesticide poisoning and many of these are children; around a million cases worldwide require hospitalisation each year, though around 4 times this number do not recieve any medical treatment. It is estimated that up to 300 000 people die every year although a good few of these deaths are suicides -people ingesting pesticides, often farmers not able to pay the high prices of the now patented seeds from the likes of Monsanto. Not everyone realises that DEET is a pesticide and the only one that people apply directly to their skin! incognito is as good at protecting you, so now nobody need slather a deadly neurotoxin all over their skin.

The vast majority of the vineyard growers in the Champagne region no longer use pesticides on their land which has resulted not only in better tasting Champagne and wines but also in less pollution in the soil. I will drink to that!