The immune home

This chapter uses the example of mosquito repellents to reconsider the domestic orientation of global health immuno-logics. Spatial repellency, a volumetric mode of chemical action, seeks to reduce disease transmission by creating atmospheres inimical to mosquitoes and other insect vectors of disease. Unlike insecticides, which are expected to kill on contact, spatial repellency works by creating transitory chemical envelopes that keep potential biological threats at bay. Drawing inspiration from work by Tanzanian colleagues on new repellent products for malaria prevention, we explore the implications of untethering protection from the affordances of a physically enclosed domestic space. In Tanzania’s Kilombero Valley, this untethering forces a reexamination of the contained, finished house as the conventional unit of global health action, drawing attention instead to modes of house-ing that encompass the spatial and temporal inbetweens of everyday life.