Unknown mosquito poses renewed threat

LONDON: Scientists have discovered what could be a new type of mosquito in Africa with the potential to cause hundreds of thousands more malaria-related deaths.

Researchers say the find is worrying because they have not been able to match the DNA of the new species to any known species of mosquito.

Also, the insect does not behave like other mosquitoes – it has a daytime feeding pattern and researchers are worried that this poses a serious challenge to controlling the disease.

By contrast, the female anopheles – the main cause of malaria – bites at night, when it sucks blood as part of its eggproduction cycle.

Nearly one million people die of malaria each year, but the number would be much higher were it not for mosquito nets.

Researcher Jennifer Stevenson, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “We observed that many mosquitoes we caught – including those infected with malaria – did not physically resemble other known malaria mosquitoes.

“Analysis indicated that their DNA differed from sequences available for known malaria-transmitting in Africa.”

Stevenson said the researchers found the species in a village in the highlands of western Kenya where they set up outdoor and indoor traps.

“The main difference that came from this study is that we caught 70 percent of these species A – which is what we named them because we don’t know exactly what they are – outdoors before 10.30pm.”

Controls

mosquitoes

Andrew Griffiths, of the children’s charity World Vision, said the findings were a setback in the battle against malaria. It was worrying because “bed nets are one of the important tools in combating malaria and we’ve seen deaths go down dramatically”.

While nets were not the only answer in reducing the incidence of the disease, they were one of the main ways.

“It would mean that one of the important parts in the response to malaria would be taken away,” Griffiths said.

Scientists who led the study in Kenya are now calling for wider controls to deal with transmission of the disease. – The Independent on Sunday