Immediately after a mosquito is infected with the fungus, it completely stops its blood-feeding behavior… It will only consume water or fruit juices and will not suck blood. Another important point is that once mosquitoes are infected with the fungus, they cannot support the development of malaria parasites.
At the Fourth Malaria Conference held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, a group of scientists from the Netherlands, Tanzania, and the UK presented their research findings on a type of fungus that can be used as a tool against the spread of malaria.
According to the researchers, in countries located in the eastern region of Africa, there exists a fungus that, when it infects certain insects, including mosquitoes carrying malaria parasites, can develop and quickly kill these insects. Specifically, when infecting a mosquito’s body, the fungus shortens the mosquito’s lifespan by two-thirds, meaning that the mosquito’s life expectancy is significantly reduced.
The research was conducted in Tanzania. In the testing area, the scientists spread this fungus over 20% of the ground where mosquitoes typically land, and the rate of malaria transmission decreased by 76%.
According to Professor Willem Takken from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, this fungus can prevent mosquitoes from transmitting malaria parasites to humans. He stated: “Immediately after a mosquito is infected with the fungus, it completely stops its blood-feeding behavior… It will only consume water or fruit juices and will not suck blood. Another important point is that once mosquitoes are infected with the fungus, they cannot support the development of malaria parasites“.
From these research results, health experts hope to utilize this fungus as a new tool to combat malaria, which claims numerous lives every year, not only in Africa but also in many other countries around the world.
