7. Conclusion

These technical textiles, designed to improve personal hygiene, will be used more and more.

In fact, their effectiveness is beginning to be recognized:

• by the medical profession: at Strasbourg hospital, for example, studies are underway to observe the influence of a room with bedding treated against dust mites, on patients suffering from asthma and allergic to dust mites;

• by the WHO, which stresses the importance of insecticide-treated nets in the fight against malaria and in reducing mortality;

• by consumers, for whom buying odor-resistant clothing has become a matter of course.

At present, the challenges facing research laboratories are :

• validation of active (virus-destroying)...