Scientists have discovered a second new compound that could eventually be developed into a medicine to help eradicate malaria.
The Koka Reservoir in Ethiopia. Steps have been taken to reduce malaria infections without sacrificing the primary purposes of the dam.
David Stanley/Flickr
Innovations targeted at mosquito control are good but should not draw focus away from the tried and tested public health measures to control mosquito-borne diseases.
After years of complaints, will the British Army now use controversial anti-malarial as a drug of last resort?
Mefloquine’s chemical structure is based on one of the first malaria drugs, quinine, that comes from the bark of South America’s Cinchona tree.
Cinchona seedlings being packaged for shipment to make quinine, 1943/NLM
Harin Karunajeewa, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Mefloquine was one of around 250,000 chemical compounds tested for malaria-killing activity in the 1960s by the United States military who needed to protect troops from malaria in the tropics.
A Nigerian woman purchases a mosquito net from a medical supply vendor.
Arne Hoel / World Bank
Understanding what causes diseases is a life-and-death matter. It is a complicated issue that has generated a great deal of debate in the medical community.
A father reads to his son while sitting under a mosquito net. Mosquitoes have undergone evolutionary changes due to long-lasting insecticide-treated nets.
Georgina Goodwin and Vestergaard Frandsen
Although there have been global efforts to eliminate parasites, some parasites and vectors will have survived attack because they have evolved resistance.
Imagine if all these people were gathering valuable data for public benefit?
Scott Cresswell/Flickr
If we can solve the privacy issues, placing trackers on people and the things we make can teach us a great deal about ourselves and the world around us.
Sorting pupae of genetically modified mosquitoes before release to the wild.
Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
Insecticides and mosquito nets only get you so far. Synthetic biologists are ready to take the battle against mosquito-borne disease to the level of DNA – which might spell the insects’ ultimate doom.
They spread disease and misery and account for millions of deaths every year. There’s not a lot to be said for mosquitoes.
The link between microcephaly in unborn children and Zika hasn’t been definitely confirmed, but vaccine development is a top priority.
Percio Campos/EPA
As Zika fear rises, people are inevitably asking why we don’t have a vaccine to protect against the mosquito-borne virus.
Municipal workers wait before spraying insecticide to prevent the spread of Aedes aegypti mosquito at Sambodrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, January 26, 2016.
Pilar Olivares/Reuters
Zika was discovered almost 70 years ago, but wasn’t associated with outbreaks until 2007. So how did this formerly obscure virus wind up causing so much trouble in Brazil?
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases