Health experts recommend 'sleeping' with a live chicken to keep away Malaria

As Kenya, Ghana and Malawi begin to test the world’s first malaria vaccine; the world is holding its breath in what could be the final nail to one of the world’s deadliest disease.

The vaccine, which has partial effectiveness, has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives if used with existing measures, the WHO regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said in a statement.

According to the World Health Organization, a child dies every minute from malaria in Africa where it is estimated that 9 out of 10 malaria deaths occur.

Preventing Malaria may actually be simpler than earlier thought; a new study has found that having a live chicken in your room while you sleep could prevent malaria causing mosquitoes from slurping up your blood.

Also read: Why Alcohol lovers are more likely to get malaria

Ethiopian and Swedish scientists discovered that mosquitoes tend to avoid chickens and other birds.

The experiments, conducted in western Ethiopia, included suspending a live chicken in a cage near a volunteer sleeping under a bed net.

The scientists, whose research was published in the Malaria Journal, concluded that as mosquitoes use their sense of smell to locate an animal they can bite there must be something in a chicken's odour that puts the insects off.

Habte Tekie from Addis Ababa University who was part of the research team, says that the compounds from the chicken odour can be extracted and use as a mosquito repellent.

After the successful experiment where it was proofed malaria infections went down, field trials are now "in the pipeline".