In a groundbreaking approach to fighting malaria, researchers at Harvard University suggest treating mosquitoes—not just humans—with malaria drugs to eliminate the parasite and stop transmission.

Instead of relying solely on insecticides to kill mosquitoes, the team has discovered a pair of drugs that can cleanse the insects of the malaria parasite when absorbed through their legs. 

The long-term goal is to coat bed nets with these drugs, offering a new line of defense in the battle against one of the world’s deadliest diseases.

Malaria, which kills nearly 600,000 people annually—most of them young children—is spread when female mosquitoes carrying the parasite bite humans. 

For years, the primary focus has been on insecticide-treated nets and environmental control. However, rising resistance among mosquitoes to insecticides is rendering traditional measures less effective.

“We haven't really tried to directly kill parasites in the mosquito before this, because we were just killing the mosquito,” said Dr Alexandra Probst, the study’s lead researcher. “But that approach is no longer cutting it.”

Published in the journal Nature, the study details how researchers screened a large library of compounds, eventually identifying two drugs that killed all malaria parasites within infected mosquitoes. The drugs were applied to net-like materials, and even when the mosquitoes survived contact, the parasites did not.

“This is a totally new way of targeting mosquitoes themselves,” said Dr Probst, who added that the malaria parasite is less likely to develop resistance within mosquitoes due to the much lower number of parasites they carry compared to humans.

The drug-treated nets could remain effective for up to a year, offering a long-lasting and cost-efficient alternative to insecticides. Field trials are set to begin in Ethiopia, though researchers caution it may take six years to confirm the method’s success.

Source: BBC

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