When it comes to tackling malaria, it is often the little things that can make a difference. One is getting the right terminology for the tools of the trade. “The tendency now is to move away from calling them ‘bed nets’ because in some communities, people say they don’t sleep on beds,” says Kwaku Yeboah, director of malaria prevention and mitigation at Family Health International, the global health non-profit organisation.

While insecticide-treated nets have led to dramatic advances in reducing the number of malaria infections, it is this kind of local cultural knowledge that Mr Yeboah believes is essential when it comes to accelerating the uptake of the nets.