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New  malaria-carrying mosquito found in Cameroun


A new form of mosquitocarrying the parasiteresponsible for the most deadly
form of malaria, Africa’s biggest killer alongside HIV/AIDS, has been
discovered in a village in southern Cameroun, researchers have said.

Discovery of the hitherto-unknown variety, provisionally dubbed ‘Oveng Form’
after the village where it was found, is likely to make the fight against
malaria in Cameroun even more difficult, researchers have said, although
more research was needed.

It joins four other species already known in the central African country,
all of them resistant to common anti-malaria drugs.

A team of French and Camerounian scientists made the discovery after
collecting samples of anopheles mosquitoes from five localities including
Oveng village - which lies between two rivers near the border with Gabon and
Equatorial Guinea.

"It is then that we discovered that the samples from Oveng village were
different from existing varieties in terms of morphology and behaviour,’’
Parfait Herman Awono-Ambene, one of the scientists who carried out the
research, told Reuters at the weekend.

Mosquitoes from the anopheles group transmit malaria - which kills roughly
3,000 people every day - to humans along rivers in Africa. The results of
the study were published in the July issue of the Journal of Medical
Entomology.

"The interesting thing about Oveng Form is that it is hardly found inside
houses though it bites human beings just like others and contains the
malaria-carrying agent Plasmodium falciparum,’’ Awono-Ambene said, referring
to the most life-threatening form of the disease.

He said the mosquito found in Oveng becomes very active at dusk, feeding on
people who live near or along the banks of the two rivers.

More research will need to be carried out to determine whether this variety
is only present in Oveng village, but Awono-Ambene said the mosquito was
also likely to exist in neighbouring Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Malaria costs Africa around $12 billion a year in lost income.

In Cameroun, it represents 35 to 40 percent of deaths in hospitals and is
responsible for 40 percent of deaths among children aged between zero and
five.



The country’s public health authorities are promoting the

use of impregnated nets to fight the disease, but

adequate nets are not always easily available and at 3,500 CFA

francs ($6.5) they are often too expensive for the average

household.

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