Mosquito News and Research

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Malaria vaccine trial: an interview with Professor Sir Brian Greenwood

Malaria is an infection caused by a parasite called plasmodium, which is transmitted from person to person by females of some species of mosquito. It is primarily a disease of tropical countries.

14 Dec 2012

Study investigates different approaches to eradicate mosquito-borne diseases

A special issue of Pathogens and Global Health, published by Maney Publishing, investigates different approaches to eradicate mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitoes can transmit a number of pathogenic diseases including dengue fever, yellow fever, and malaria.

13 Dec 2012

Researchers decipher mechanism by which anophelin binds to thrombin

An international project lead by the Molecular and Cell Biology Institute of Porto University with the participation of researchers from IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) has, for the first time ever, deciphered the mechanism by which a substance called anophelin binds to an enzyme (thrombin) involved in the process of blood coagulation.

12 Dec 2012

Scientific exploration important on earth, in space

In the New York Times' "Scientist At Work" blog, Alexander Kumar, a physician and researcher at Concordia Station in Antarctica, examines the question of "why humans should venture out to other planets, and perhaps in the process create new problems, when we have so many problems on our own planet," including HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and other "largely preventable and treatable" conditions.

6 Dec 2012

Hebrew University researchers pave way for development of new approaches to cure malaria

More than a million people die each year of malaria caused by different strains of the Plasmodium parasite transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito. The medical world has yet to find an effective vaccine against the deadly parasite, which mainly affects pregnant women and children under the age of five. By figuring out how the most dangerous strain evades the watchful eye of the immune system, researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have now paved the way for the development of new approaches to cure this acute infection.

4 Dec 2012

REEAD technology can diagnose malaria infections with very high sensitivity

Malaria is a life-threatening disease that strikes more than 200 million people every year - mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The disease is caused by the Plasmodium parasite, which is spread by infected mosquito bites. Today, malaria can be prevented and successfully treated, but more than half a million people nevertheless die every year from the disease.

28 Nov 2012

Emory University, Georgia Tech to establish Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a five-year contract of up to $19.4 million, depending on contract options exercised, to establish the Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center (MaHPIC).

20 Nov 2012

Braking mechanism in olfactory neurons helps generate amazing diversity of sensors in the nose

The human nose has millions of olfactory neurons grouped into hundreds of different neuron types. Each of these neuron types expresses only one odorant receptor, and all neurons expressing the same odorant receptor plug into one region in the brain, an organization that allows for specific odors to be sensed.

15 Nov 2012

Yellow fever kills more than 100 people in Darfur; WHO, health ministry to provide immunizations

"More than two million people in Sudan's Darfur region will be vaccinated against a rare yellow fever outbreak suspected of killing 107 people since late September, health officials said on Tuesday," Agence France-Presse/France 24 reports (11/13). In a joint statement, the WHO and the Sudanese Ministry of Health said the mosquito-borne disease has spread throughout the western territory, which "has been plagued by conflict since rebels took up arms in 2003," Reuters notes.

15 Nov 2012

Princeton neuroscientists to explore how human brain accomplishes real-world tasks

Princeton neuroscientists have been awarded a $4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to explore how the human brain enables us to pursue goals and juggle priorities in an environment full of distractions.

14 Nov 2012

Growing number of dengue cases in India increases risk of disease spreading worldwide, experts warn

"An epidemic of dengue fever in India is fostering a growing sense of alarm even as government officials here have publicly refused to acknowledge the scope of a problem that experts say is threatening hundreds of millions of people, not just in India but around the world," the New York Times reports.

8 Nov 2012

Combination of mosquito nets and deltamethrin does not lead to decline in malaria

Some develop resistance. Others alter their behaviour. Mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, the vectors of malaria, always find a way to foil human attempts to protect themselves from this disease. Researchers from the IRD and their partners have revealed their great capacity for adaptation, which weakens the strategies to combatting their presence, recommended by the WHO.

6 Nov 2012

Global Health Service Partnership 'could be the start of something big'

Writing in GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog, Claire Panosian Dunavan, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, reflects on the Global Health Service Partnership, a new public-private partnership launched by Vanessa Kerry, daughter of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) "to boost the education of doctors and nurses in sub-Saharan Africa."

25 Oct 2012

New method of testing for West Nile virus

While the United States has largely been spared the scourge of mosquito-borne diseases endemic to the developing world-including yellow fever, malaria and dengue fever-mosquito-related illnesses in the US are on the rise. One pathogen of increasing concern in the U.S. is an arbovirus known as West Nile.

24 Oct 2012

Researchers identify how mosquito's immune system attacks specific infections

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have determined a new mechanism by which the mosquitoes' immune system can respond with specificity to infections with various pathogens, including the parasite that causes malaria in humans, using one single gene.

20 Oct 2012

Researchers use cell phone data to track malaria spread in Kenya

"Harvard researchers found they could track the spread of malaria in Kenya using phone calls and text messages from 15 million mobile phones," ABC News' "Medical Unit" reports.

16 Oct 2012

International cooperation essential to help Uganda fight malaria

Uganda "has overcome a violent past, but hope is daily threatened by a force more deadly than any warlord or civil unrest": the mosquito, Ugandan Health Minister Christine Ondoa writes in a GlobalPost opinion piece. According to the WHO, "Uganda has the highest incidence of malaria in the world," and the disease is endemic in more than 95 percent of the country, she notes.

15 Oct 2012

Financial Times features special report on NTDs

The Financial Times has published a special report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) featuring 10 articles examining issues including prevention, research, and treatment.

12 Oct 2012

Perplexing evolutionary history of malaria transmitting mosquito species

An African mosquito species with a deadly capacity to transmit malaria has a perplexing evolutionary history, according to discovery by researchers at the Fralin Life Science Institute at Virginia Tech.

6 Oct 2012

Combination pill to treat malaria pre-approved by WHO

"A malaria drug made by India's Cipla has been pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO), an important step towards its roll-out across Asia, where millions of people are infected with the mosquito-borne disease every year," Reuters reports.

6 Oct 2012