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Study finds new way to fight malaria using spider, scorpion's venom

Wednesday June 21 2017
mosquito

A mosquito. A study by the University of Maryland in US has found a new way of fighting malaria -- using toxins from spider and scorpion venom. FILE PHOTO | NMG

A study by the University of Maryland in US has found a new way of fighting malaria -- using toxins from spider and scorpion's venom.

The venom is used to naturally create fungi, which kills malaria-carrying mosquitoes or stop them from biting.

Malaria, a top-killer disease in Kenya is transmitted by infected anopheles mosquitoes, which are increasingly becoming pesticide-resistant, posing a threat to the progress made so far in eliminating the scourge.

The study, published in the Scientific Reports Journal last week, used a genetically engineered version of the Metarhizium pingshaensei fungus — which occurs naturally in China — in tests conducted in Burkina Faso in West Africa.

“The venom from scorpions and spiders have genes that make them a natural mosquito killer when their highly-concentrated reproductive cells come into contact with a mosquito’s exoskeleton. They penetrate through into the insect’s internal organs to kill it from the inside out,” said the study leader and professor of entomology at the university, Raymond John St Leger.

READ: Spraying to help fight malaria in 4 counties

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“Controlling the mosquito is currently the best way of reducing malaria and dengue and chikungunya and all those other disease which mosquitoes carry.”

St Leger said the fungus poses no risk to humans as it would not survive in the human body.

The fungus has been approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency as safe for field use and would not poison birds, mammals and other insects.

“The toxins block mineral channels in the mosquitoes’ body that are required for the transmission of nerve impulses and dull the insects’ appetite, making them less likely to feed,” said St. Leger.

READ: Kenyans exposed to illegal malaria drugs

Parasitic disease

Malaria is a parasitic disease whose symptoms appear around two weeks after the infected mosquito bite and include fever, headache and chills.

If not treated within 24 hours, the parasite can result in severe illness or death.

Malaria is the second biggest killer disease in the country with 16,000 deaths reported last year after pneumonia, down from 24,772 in 2012.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported about 212 million cases of malaria in 2015 globally, with 429,000 deaths from the disease in the same year.

Africa bears a disproportionate burden of malaria cases, with 90 per cent of malaria infections and 92 per cent of fatalities occurring in the continent in 2015.

WHO has reported substantial gains in the fight against malaria in recent years, with new incidences falling by more than a fifth between 2010 and 2015.

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