Mosquito News and Research

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Gene mutation helps protect against malaria

New research suggests that not everyone who is bitten by a malaria-infected mosquito develops life threatening health problems according to scientists at the University of Toronto.

21 Apr 2008

Social networking, malaria and philanthropy partnership

Philanthropy just got easier and a lot more accessible to the public thanks to the social networking power of the Internet and a ground-breaking partnership between a young British entrepreneur, a global health think tank and an African medical research institute.

20 Apr 2008

Mosquito mating mechanism could lead to new attack on dengue and yellow fever

Cornell researchers have identified a mating mechanism that possibly could be adapted to prevent female mosquitoes from spreading the viruses that cause dengue fever, second only to malaria as the most virulent mosquito-borne disease in the tropical world.

11 Apr 2008

Climate change and human health

Scientists tell us that the evidence the Earth is warming is "unequivocal." Increases in global average air and sea temperature, ice melting and rising global sea levels all help us understand and prepare for the coming challenges.

7 Apr 2008

Doctors are warning that climate change is already affecting people's health

Doctors in Australia are warning that by 2020 there will be a growing number of illnesses related to climate change.

7 Apr 2008

Solanum villosum - berries from Indian weed - may keep mosquitoes at bay

Mosquitoes responsible for spreading disease are increasingly becoming resistant to synthetic insecticides.

3 Apr 2008

Discovery about fertilization points way to possible malaria vaccine

International investigations of an organism that one UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher calls a “silly little green scum” have led to key insights into the basic mechanisms of reproduction.

26 Mar 2008

Military to fight Dengue fever in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Since the beginning of the year across the state of Rio, 49 people have died from the potentially deadly fever, the vast majority of victims have been in the city itself, with hospitals struggling to cope.

24 Mar 2008

Dengue fever warnings for WA and far north Queensland

The Health Department in West Australia say there is a sharp increase in the mosquito-borne viral infection Dengue fever in people returning from Indonesia.

19 Mar 2008

Chikungunya virus appears seldom to harm infants of mothers infected early in pregnancy

Chikungunya virus, an infectious agent transmitted by mosquitoes, appears seldom to harm infants of mothers infected early in pregnancy, but can frequently cause serious problems, including lasting brain injury, in babies born to mothers who acquire the virus near the time of delivery, according to a study in PLoS Medicine.

18 Mar 2008

Mathematical model of malaria transmission will help with eradication

Scientists at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), in Portugal, have shown that Malaria eradication in Africa is sustainable, and any re-emergence of malaria in industrialized nations is highly unlikely.

13 Mar 2008

First spatial map of global malaria risk

About 35 percent of the world's population is at risk of contracting deadly malaria, but many people are at a lower risk than previously thought, raising hope that the disease could be seriously reduced or eliminated in parts of the world.

27 Feb 2008

Mosquito bourne diseases cause concern in three areas of Australia

Australian Health officials have issued public health warnings about mosquito bourne diseases in three areas.

25 Feb 2008

Evolutionary 'battle scars' identify enhanced antiviral activity

Rapid evolution of a protein produced by an immunity gene is associated with increased antiviral activity in humans, a finding that suggests evolutionary biology and virology together can accelerate the discovery of viral-defense mechanisms, according to researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

25 Jan 2008

Candidate malaria vaccine shows promise

A small clinical trial conducted by an international team of researchers in Mali has found that a candidate malaria vaccine was safe and elicited strong immune responses in the 40 Malian adults who received it.

24 Jan 2008

Experts say Dengue fever threatens to spread across the U.S

Health officials in the U.S. say the tropical infection Dengue fever is in danger of spreading across the country.

10 Jan 2008

Dengue seen as potential threat to US public health

A disease most Americans have never heard of could soon become more prevalent if dengue, a flu-like illness that can turn deadly, continues to expand into temperate climates and increase in severity, according to a new commentary by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and David M. Morens, M.D., Fauci's senior scientific advisor.

9 Jan 2008

Sea-cucumber protein may provide methods of preventing the transmission of malaria

Scientists have genetically engineered a mosquito to release a sea-cucumber protein into its gut which impairs the development of malaria parasites, according to research out today (21 December) in PLoS Pathogens.

28 Dec 2007

Chikungunya in La Reunion - new findings

Researchers have discovered the key to how a mysterious mosquito-borne viral outbreak swept over the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion in 2005 and 2006, infecting about 266,000 people and causing at least 260 deaths — the first fatalities to be reported in connection with the virus, known as chikungunya.

10 Dec 2007

Chikungunya virus spreads to new vectors

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch have discovered how a key protein switch allows Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV) to spread to new vectors.

10 Dec 2007