A report on Malaria and Mosquito control

Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell

Mosquitoes are generally considered annoying and some species transmit diseases, thus leading to a variety of human efforts to eradicate or reduce their presence.

Gambusia affinis (Mosquitofish), a natural mosquito predator.

The life cycle of malaria parasites. Sporozoites are introduced by a mosquito bite. They migrate to the liver, where they multiply into thousands of merozoites. The merozoites infect red blood cells and replicate, infecting more and more red blood cells. Some parasites form gametocytes, which are taken up by a mosquito, continuing the life cycle.

A Hygieostatic Bat Roost, custom-built to house bats for biocontrol of mosquitos

Micrograph of a placenta from a stillbirth due to maternal malaria. H&E stain. Red blood cells are anuclear; blue/black staining in bright red structures (red blood cells) indicate foreign nuclei from the parasites.

In 1958, the National Malaria Eradication Program implemented the wide-scale use of DDT for mosquito control.

Electron micrograph of a Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cell (center), illustrating adhesion protein "knobs"

Anti-mosquito fogging operation P.Ramachandrapuram Village in India

The blood film is the gold standard for malaria diagnosis.

Walls on IRS-treated bathroom on the shores of Lake Victoria. The mosquitoes remain on the wall until they fall down dead on the floor.

Ring-forms and gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum in human blood

A light trap that attracts and captures mosquitoes.

An Anopheles stephensi mosquito shortly after obtaining blood from a human (the droplet of blood is expelled as a surplus). This mosquito is a vector of malaria, and mosquito control is an effective way of reducing its incidence.

Man spraying kerosene oil in standing water, Panama Canal Zone, 1912

Walls where indoor residual spraying of DDT has been applied. The mosquitoes remain on the wall until they fall down dead on the floor.

An advertisement for quinine as a malaria treatment from 1927.

Deaths due to malaria per million persons in 2012

Past and current malaria prevalence in 2009

Ancient malaria oocysts preserved in Dominican amber

British doctor Ronald Ross received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria.

Chinese medical researcher Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for her work on the antimalarial drug artemisinin.

Artemisia annua, source of the antimalarial drug artemisinin

U.S. Marines with malaria in a field hospital on Guadalcanal, October 1942

Members of the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations collecting larvae on the Danube delta, 1929

1962 Pakistani postage stamp promoting malaria eradication program

Disability-adjusted life year for malaria per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004
no data
<10
0–100
100–500
500–1000
1000–1500
1500–2000
2000–2500
2500–2750
2750–3000
3000–3250
3250–3500
≥3500

Mosquito control is a vital public-health practice throughout the world and especially in the tropics because mosquitoes spread many diseases, such as malaria and the Zika virus.

- Mosquito control

The risk of disease can be reduced by preventing mosquito bites through the use of mosquito nets and insect repellents or with mosquito-control measures such as spraying insecticides and draining standing water.

- Malaria

2 related topics with Alpha

Mosquito

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Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin culex meaning "gnat").

Image of pitcher plant mosquito Wyeomyia smithii, showing segmentation and partial anatomy of circulatory system

An egg raft of a Culex species, partly broken, showing individual egg shapes

Adult yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti, typical of subfamily Culicinae. Note bushy antennae and longer palps of male on left vs. females at right.

Aedes aegypti, a common vector of dengue fever and yellow fever

$Here an Anopheles stephensi female is engorged with blood and beginning to pass unwanted liquid fractions of the blood to make room in its gut for more of the solid nutrients.$

Female Ochlerotatus notoscriptus feeding on a human arm, Tasmania, Australia

Anopheles albimanus mosquito feeding on a human arm – this mosquito is the sole vector of malaria, and mosquito control is a very effective way of reducing the incidence of malaria.

Mosquitofish Gambusia affinis, a natural mosquito predator

A warning sign about mosquitoes in Sodankylä, Finland

A still from Winsor McCay's pioneering 1912 animated film How a Mosquito Operates

Anopheles larva from southern Germany, about 8 mm long

In this way, mosquitoes are important vectors of parasitic diseases such as malaria and filariasis, and arboviral diseases such as yellow fever, Chikungunya, West Nile, dengue fever, and Zika.

Vector control aimed at mosquito control or eradication

Insect repellent

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Substance applied to skin, clothing, or other surfaces to discourage insects (and arthropods in general) from landing or climbing on that surface.

Oil Jar in cow horn for mosquito-repelling pitch oil, a by-product of the distillation of wood tar. Carried in a leather strap on a belt. Råneå, Norrbotten, since 1921 in Nordiska museet, Stockholm.

Insect repellents help prevent and control the outbreak of insect-borne (and other arthropod-bourne) diseases such as malaria, Lyme disease, dengue fever, bubonic plague, river blindness, and West Nile fever.

There are several, widespread, unproven theories about mosquito control, such as the assertion that vitamin B, in particular B1 (thiamine), garlic, ultrasonic devices or incense can be used to repel or control mosquitoes.