Using a hammer to kill a mosquito

From using nets to using microwave and poisoned blood, scientists now want to use weapons of mass destruction to combat Africa’s biggest killer — malaria. American scientists are making a ray gun to kill mosquitoes. Developers of the laser — dubbed a weapon of mosquito destruction (WMD) — argue that it will lock onto airborne insects.

This comes at a time when medical experts last month introduced a new flavoured malaria drug for children in Africa. Children are prone to refuse to swallow the bitter malaria drug for adults, but the new paediatric version, called Coartem D, is cherry-flavoured and dissolves easily in water or breast milk.

Causes death

The new developments will come as good news for Kenya where malaria is the leading cause of illness and death, accounting for 30 to 50 per cent of outpatient attendance, while 19 per cent of all admissions at public health facilities are malaria cases.

Malaria is Kenya’s biggest childhood killer, with an estimated 34,000 children under five dying each year. However, the World Health Organisation estimates that in Kenya’s high risk areas, children sleeping under mosquito nets are 44 per cent less likely to die from malaria than those sleeping in the open.

The use of treated nets has been touted as one of the most effective methods of preventing new infections especially among pregnant women and children under the age of five years. A project in Kisumu, run with the support of Britain’s Department for International Development reduced malaria cases by 13 per cent in less than a year.

Ms Victoria Abutika, a community health worker at Ratta Health Centre in Kisumu West told the Nation recently that the number of treated cases had dropped from 3,217 in 2007 to 2,797 in 2008. She attributed this drop to the increased use of treated nets that kicked off in 2007.

The health centre serves about 9,035 people from 19 villages. Ms Abutika noted that they had already distributed 1,280 treated bed nets around the area and were distributing another 800.

“We are also using motorbikes and bicycles to reach the remote areas of the district in an attempt to reach more people,” Ms Abutika told the Nation during a visit by Britain’s Secretary of State for International Development, Mr Douglas Alexander.

Mr Alexander said that DfID was boosting the distribution of bed nets as the most effective way of combating malaria. The minister distributed the 14 millionth treated net in the country. Another 600,000 nets are to be given out across the country before the end of this month to complete a six-year programme.

Kenya has over the years welcomed more research into biological control methods, especially because mosquitoes are increasingly developing resistance to some pesticides. Scientists around the world are testing ways of thwarting mosquitoes with microwaves, rancid odours, poisoned blood and other weapons that disrupt the sense of sight, smell and heat mosquitoes use to find their prey.

Tilapia fish is known to feed on mosquito larvae, but has not previously been tested in the field as a method of mosquito control. Fifteen weeks after the fish are introduced, the number of anopheles mosquito larvae in the ponds decrease by more than 94 per cent, compared with a nearby control pond.

Anopheles species are the malaria-carrying mosquitoes. But critics doubted this method because mosquitoes often breed in small pools of water, such as pots, where you can’t put fish. In the latest development, the WMD laser works by detecting the audio frequency created by the beating of mosquito wings.

A computer triggers the laser beam, the mosquito’s wings are burnt and its smoking carcass falls on the ground. The research is backed by Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft shareholder. It is speculated that lasers could shield villages or be fired at swarming insects from patrolling drone aircraft.

Additional donor support is also contributing to the roll-out of new anti-malarial combination therapies, improving the response to epidemics and funding of net re-treatment. A month ago, Kenyans had sigh of relief as the government announced that wananchi would get the most effective malaria drugs for Sh70 per dose, down from Sh500.

The medicines will be provided under a highly subsidised programme that will see the treatment of the killer disease become available at private pharmacies and even local kiosks. Kenya is among 11 African countries taking part in Phase 1 of the Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria, an initiative of the Global Fund (GF), World Bank and other international donors.