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Treating mosquitoes may be a new way to fight malaria

Author: Aimee Cunningham / Source: Science News

kids with mosquito bed nets
NET PROTECTION Insecticide-treated bed nets, like this one in Mali, are effective at preventing malaria infection, but mosquitoes are increasingly developing resistance to the chemicals. Antimalarial drugs that target the malaria parasite in the mosquito might one day be a useful addition to the nets.

The fight against malaria may someday include ridding mosquitoes themselves of the parasites that cause the disease.

In the lab, treating female mosquitoes with an antimalarial drug stopped parasites from developing inside the insects. Mosquitoes were exposed to the treatment when they landed on a drug-coated glass surface for as little as six minutes, comparable to how long mosquitoes stop on protective bed nets as they hunt for a meal, researchers report online February 27 in Nature.

“People have been exploring ways to control insect pests for an awful long time,” says Joshua Yukich, a malaria epidemiologist at Tulane University in New Orleans who was not involved in the research. A strategy that kills malaria-causing parasites in mosquitoes “is pretty exciting.” It may be possible to make insecticide-treated bed nets even more effective by adding antimalarial compounds, he says.

Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites and spread by the bites of Anopheles mosquitoes, is a flulike illness with high fever and chills. Without treatment, it can be fatal: In 2017, there were 219 million cases of malaria worldwide, mostly in Africa, and 435,000 deaths, mainly in children.

Since 2000, an international effort to combat…

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