A study by the University of Maryland in US has found a new way
of fighting malaria -- using toxins from spider and scorpion's venom.
The venom is used to naturally create fungi, which kills malaria-carrying mosquitoes or stop them from biting.
Malaria,
a top-killer disease in Kenya is transmitted by infected anopheles
mosquitoes, which are increasingly becoming pesticide-resistant, posing a
threat to the progress made so far in eliminating the scourge.
The study, published in the Scientific Reports Journal
last week, used a genetically engineered version of the Metarhizium
pingshaensei fungus — which occurs naturally in China — in tests
conducted in Burkina Faso in West Africa.
“The venom
from scorpions and spiders have genes that make them a natural mosquito
killer when their highly-concentrated reproductive cells come into
contact with a mosquito’s exoskeleton. They penetrate through into the
insect’s internal organs to kill it from the inside out,” said the study
leader and professor of entomology at the university, Raymond John St
Leger.
“Controlling
the mosquito is currently the best way of reducing malaria and dengue
and chikungunya and all those other disease which mosquitoes carry.”
St Leger said the fungus poses no risk to humans as it would not survive in the human body.
The
fungus has been approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency as
safe for field use and would not poison birds, mammals and other
insects.
“The toxins block mineral channels in the
mosquitoes’ body that are required for the transmission of nerve
impulses and dull the insects’ appetite, making them less likely to
feed,” said St. Leger.
Parasitic disease
Malaria
is a parasitic disease whose symptoms appear around two weeks after the
infected mosquito bite and include fever, headache and chills.
If not treated within 24 hours, the parasite can result in severe illness or death.
Malaria
is the second biggest killer disease in the country with 16,000 deaths
reported last year after pneumonia, down from 24,772 in 2012.
The
World Health Organisation (WHO) reported about 212 million cases of
malaria in 2015 globally, with 429,000 deaths from the disease in the
same year.
Africa bears a disproportionate burden of
malaria cases, with 90 per cent of malaria infections and 92 per cent of
fatalities occurring in the continent in 2015.
WHO has
reported substantial gains in the fight against malaria in recent
years, with new incidences falling by more than a fifth between 2010 and
2015.
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