What if we could turn everyday objects made of paper and fabric into protection from mosquitoes by sealing in a repellent activated by touch and movement? Our client, Ananse, was intrigued. Could we invent an entirely new class of repellent – and even better -- one made entirely of natural repellent ingredients? It had never been done.

To appeal to children, who dislike sticky, smelly topical repellents, we’d make the products educational and fun to use at school and playtime. We tapped an author to write and illustrate a story that would bring the region’s rich mythology of Amazon Warriors to life. To create a collection, we produced a repellent coloring book, crayons and a superhero’s cape for imaginative children. Activated by mere movement, the repellent sealed inside these objects would create a six-hour window of mosquito protection, extending up to five feet in diameter, and lasting three months.

Ananse chemists spent a year developing the coating technology to seal in a proprietary repellent formula to paper, fabric and crayons. During this time, we wrote and illustrated “Amazon Warriors,” bringing to life a popular mythology about warriors, summoned to save the rainforest from devastation. The microcapsule technology is now available to any book publisher or toy manufacturer for similar application. (Brazil is one of the world’s largest children’s book markets.) The technology potentially can be licensed outside Brazil wherever mosquitoes spread deadly diseases.

This new form of repellent now brings protection from mosquito-borne diseases to children’s reading and learning activities. Ananse’s microcapsules show promise for turning many everyday physical objects into repellents, including apparel, to provide needed protection to children and adults.

Working with a nonprofit Amazon research organization, IPAM, we’ve distributed 2,000 Safe Collection kits free of charge to every household with children in the village of Tapara Miri in Pará, an isolated rainforest community, and stocked their school classroom with books. IPAM will replenish the village’s Safe Collection kits every three months. Twenty thousand more collections are being distributed to other villages throughout the Amazon.

“Safe Collection - Amazon Warriors” uses nanotechnology to create a new class of repellent containing microcapsules of natural repellent ingredients -- citronella, clove and neem oils. It took months of trial and error to create a formulation that could be used to coat book pages. The varnish was lab tested, proven safe and effective when in contact with children’s sensitive skin. When pages are turned, the repellent is activated, creating a “bubble” of protection that extends up to five feet in diameter and lasts for about six hours. Tests show that the collection’s repellent remains effective for three months from the first page turns, depending on frequency of use. The crayons and cape use the same repellent formulation, which is activated in the same fashion. As a precaution, Ananse chemists added an off-putting, bitter taste to the wax to discourage a child from chewing on the crayons.

Every major Brazilian media outlet covered the story, and coverage spilled to 30 countries, transforming Tapara Miri into a global testing ground for everyday objects that repel mosquitoes. 67,000+ earned media stories appeared within three weeks of our visit, reaching 500 million people. Another 300 stories ran on social media, viewed and shared 4.5+ million times.

Our campaign won the endorsement of the Brazilian Health Department, whose minister once said, “We’re losing the battle against the mosquito in an ugly way.” Safe Collection won approval for distribution. Pediatricians and IPAM also endorse it. The books have been added to curricula in Pará State. According to IPAM, 90% of Tapara Miri children are wearing the capes and reading the books weeks later.

There are no new reports of a malaria or yellow fever outbreak in the village. IPAM will replenish kits every three months; 20,000 are being distributed to other villages.

Yellow fever (YF), spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, is the “Brazilian plague,” with a kill rate equal to Ebola’s. Brazil’s current YF outbreak (with 144 confirmed deaths) is the largest since the 1980s. Malaria cases have risen 35% in one year, with 2,000 infections. Children are at risk; 86% of malaria deaths globally occur under age five.

Brazil’s Health Ministry is hard-pressed to stop the spread. A vaccine exists for YF, but the sheer size of Brazil coupled with vaccine shortages mean that widespread inoculation in remote regions could take years.

Meanwhile, topical repellents are largely unattainable and unaffordable in the Amazon, a natural mosquito breeding ground containing half of the planet’s rainforests. We approached our client Ananse, a leading chemical company that develops high tech coatings and sealants for consumer products, with an idea to develop a new form of mosquito protection to aid the country’s most vulnerable.