Africa: Jury still out on whether new mosquito carries malaria
JOHANNESBURG, 1 September 2009 (IRIN): A new species of mosquito has been discovered by South African researchers, adding to the pantheon (myriade) of some 140 species of Anopheles mosquitoes in Africa, of which seven are known to be malaria vectors (bærere).
– A lot of Africas mosquitoes are not investigated – the DR Congo is a huge blank in the map. Who knows what is happening in the remote regions of the Rift Valley? said Prof Maureen Coetzee, of the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Pathology in Johannesburg, South Africa, who discovered the new species.
Coetzee is one of the authors of the report: “A New Species Concealed by Anopheles funestus Giles, a Major Malaria Vector in Africa”. – Understanding the vectors is absolutely key; if we don’t do anything about mosquitoes, we will never do anything about malaria, she told IRIN.
The previously unknown species – provisionally named Anopheles funestus-like – was discovered during field studies by researchers from the university and South Africas National Institute for Communicable Diseases in and around rural villages in northern Malawi near the town of Karonga, on the western shore of Lake Malawi.
Læs videre på http://www.IRINnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85958
