ZeroFly® Shelter

The Need

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 9.2 million people were displaced from their homes in 2006, including 7.5 million from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan alone. When people flee their homes from natural and man-made disasters, their immediate needs include food, shelter and emergency medicine. Those lucky enough to find their way to a clinic are often sick, exhausted and vulnerable to a host of diseases, including malaria.

Displaced People and Malaria

When ZeroFly® is incorporated into the first emergency materials that displaced people receive (along with blankets and tents), malaria prevention for the whole community begins immediately.

The acute stage of emergency when people are at greatest risk may last for several months, increasing the risk of the displaced people to develop diseases like malaria - a potentially deadly illness caused by the bite of an infected mosquito.

Malaria is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including Asia and Africa. Each year, 650 million people get affected by malaria, and it claims between one to three million people, mostly young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is the number one killer of African children under five years of age.

The ZeroFly® Solution

To bridge the gap between the acute stage of an emergency and the time when proper infrastructure is established, the ZeroFly® shelter, a long-lasting insecticide-incorporated plastic sheeting, has been developed as a dual function tool providing both shelter and malaria prevention.

The insecticide incorporated in the plastic sheeting will kill and repel mosquitoes and thereby keep them away from people living and sleeping under the sheeting. When ZeroFly® is incorporated into the first emergency materials that displaced people receive (along with blankets and tents), malaria prevention for the whole community begins immediately.

The ZeroFly® shelter is the first of a series of products developed by Vestergaard Frandsen to change the health management of the most vulnerable people on earth - the displaced.