<unk>  can be prevented by use of the "wetting method," which is used to remove residual cyanogens from cassava flour, as an additional processing method. Cassava flour is placed in a bowl and the level marked on the inside of the bowl. Water is added with mixing until the height of the wet flour comes up to the mark. The wet flour is placed in a thin layer on a mat for 2 hours in the sun or 5 hours in the shade to allow the escape of hydrogen cyanide produced by the breakdown of linamarin by the enzyme linamarase. The damp flour is then cooked in boiling water in the traditional way to produce a thick porridge called “fufu” or “ugali”, which is flavoured by some means such as a sauce. The wetting method is accepted by rural women because it requires little extra work or equipment and produces fufu which is not bitter, because the bitter tasting linamarin has gone. In 2010 the wetting method was taught to the women in Kay Kalenge village, Popokabaka Health Zone, Bandundu Province, DRC, where there were 34<unk>  cases. The women used the method and during the intervention there were no new<unk>  cases and the urinary thiocyanate content of the school children fell to safe levels.<unk>  had been prevented for the first time ever in the same health zone in which it had first been discovered by Dr Trolli in 1938. Fourteen months after the intervention ceased the village was visited again. It was found that there were no new cases of<unk> , the school children had low urinary thiocyanate levels, the wetting method was still being used and it had spread by word of mouth to three nearby villages. It is important to teach the women that<unk>  is due to a poison present in their food, to get them to regularly use the wetting method and posters are available in 13 different languages as a teaching aid as an additional method to remove residual cyanogens. The wetting method has now been used in 13 villages in the DRC with a collective population of nearly 10,000 people. The time of the intervention has been reduced from 18 months in the first intervention, to 12 months in the second intervention, to 9 months in the third and fourth interventions. This has reduced the cost per person of the intervention to prevent<unk>  by removing cyanogens from cassava flour, to $16 per person. This targeted method to reduce cyanide intake is much cheaper and more effective in preventing<unk>  than broad based interventions.
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