Without Understanding Vector Ecology, Malaria Elimination Will Fail

Main Category: Tropical Diseases
Also Included In: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 05 Aug 2010 - 1:00 PDT

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A global commitment to malaria eradication must also involve a long-term commitment to vector ecology. This is the message of the authors of a Policy Forum article published in this week's PLoS Medicine, who emphasize that malaria eradication efforts will not be successful until a better understanding of the ecology and evolution of the mosquito vectors is gained.

Gerry Killeen from the Ifakara Health Institute in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and colleagues say that existing front-line vector control measures (such as insecticide-treated nets and residual sprays) cannot break the transmission cycle of Plasmodium falciparum in the most intensely endemic parts of Africa and the Pacific. They argue that malaria eradication will require urgent strategic investment into understanding the ecology and evolution of the mosquito vectors that transmit malaria rather than sole investment in established means of preventing malaria transmission. They particularly emphasize the need to understand the private lives of mosquitoes in the broader environment outside of houses where they spend most of their lives: most of what we know is based on waiting for them to come to us rather than us following them as they struggle to survive and reproduce, the authors say.

Funding:
The drafting of this manuscript was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who convened the authors as the Vector Ecology Working Group during their Vector Control Consultative Meeting in Seattle, USA, July 2008. Many of the concepts presented were developed at the Frontiers in Vector Biology meeting hosted by the Wellcome Trust in Kilifi, Kenya, February 2007. HMF is supported through a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship, and GFK was supported by Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship

Competing Interests:
With the exception of AD, AB, and MG, all the authors stand to gain from increased funding in the field of vector ecology.

Citation:
Ferguson HM, Dornhaus A, Beeche A, Borgemeister C, Gottlieb M, et al. (2010) Ecology: A Prerequisite for Malaria Elimination and Eradication. PLoS Med 7(8): e1000303. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000303

Source:
Andrew Hyde
Public Library of Science

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