A MICROSCOPIC FUNGUS IS CAPABLE OF STOPPING MALARIA

A team of UK scientists in Kenya may hold the key to stopping malaria: a microscopic fungus that infects mosquitoes and prevents them from transmitting the disease

It is well known that malaria or malaria is transmitted through the bites of mosquitoes, which are the propagation vector of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which causes the disease that kills 400,000 people a year, most of them children.

For years, attempts have been made to stop the disease, and there has even been talk of totally eradicating mosquitoes. Existing treatments consist of removing the parasite from the blood when it infects a person, but this discovery opens the door to stop the disease much earlier, in the mosquitoes themselves.

The microbe that can block malaria is called Microsporidia MB, and it belongs to a family of fungi that lives in the intestines and genitalia of insects and are generally parasitic.

This microbe was found only in 5% of the insects studied. The Microsporidia MB fungus could be strengthening the mosquito’s immune system, or making it immune to the malaria parasite. If the mosquito does not have the parasite, it cannot transmit it to people through bites.

Researchers are now investigating whether they can release infected mosquitoes into the wild, or use spores to suppress the disease. For it to have an effect on contagion, at least 40% of mosquitoes would have to be infected with the fungus, which is transmitted between adult insects and also to larvae.

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