SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The main way for communities to control malaria is by controlling mosquitoes. The disease comes from a parasite spread through the bite of infected mosquitoes.
In a recent study, researchers in West Africa showed that an insecticide spray can greatly reduce malaria transmission. Researchers at the Center de Recherche Entomologique de Cotonou tested a chemical called bendiocarb. They tested it with indoor spraying at sites throughout Benin.
The study found there were fewer mosquito bites in homes sprayed with bendiocarb. More importantly, none of the three hundred fifty-thousand people who lived there got malaria-infected mosquito bites during the test.
STEVE EMBER:Malaria control efforts currently depend on things like chemically treated bed nets and spraying against mosquitoes. But scientists keep trying to find other ways to prevent the disease.
There are still no vaccines to prevent malaria. But a number of vaccines remain under development. Most contain genetically engineered versions of a few proteins from the Plasmodium parasite.
Plasmodium is the organism that causes malaria. Those modified proteins are designed to get the body's defenses to launch an immune response against the Plasmodium. But the parasite contains thousands of proteins.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Another experimental vaccine includes a deactivated version of the entire parasite. Robert Seder works at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, near Washington.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25