Babies take a lesson from soldiers in the war against malaria

Babies may soon join soldiers in the fight to ward off malaria.

For years, the U.S. military has treated uniforms with insecticide to repel mosquitoes and the malaria they can transmit. Ross Boyce used to wear one before becoming an infectious disease physician and malaria researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He wondered if babies could get similar protection – not from a uniform but by treating the baby wraps that many moms in sub-Saharan Africa use to carry their little ones.

"It seems sort of an obvious thing to do," he says, especially given the risk — nearly every minute, a child under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa dies from malaria. Plus, existing tools like insecticide-treated bed nets can only protect kids while they're sleeping.

So Boyce and his col