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.
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.
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.
Although there have been global efforts to eliminate parasites, some parasites and vectors will have survived attack because they have evolved resistance.
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.
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.
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