Biological Warfare to Control Malaria: Sustainable and Sensible?

A recent Justmeans posting by Tove Rasmussen looked at George Clooney's run-in with malaria and the advocacy efforts of Malaria No More. Subsequent discussions to the posting touched on, among other things, various ways of reducing the vector born disease's impact.

Some of those tactics include development strategies, use of insecticide-treated nets and a search for a vaccine. None of the strategies mentioned waging bio-warfare against mosquito larvae. But that's pretty much what researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands have tested in sites in Kenya.

The plasmodium parasite that transmits malaria is of course transmitted to humans via saliva from mosquito bites. Once it enters the human blood stream it lurks in the liver, often becoming resistant to anti-malarial agents. So the idea of eliminating mosquitos, by draining the standing water where they thrive, or spraying insecticides for example, has appeal. But rather than attacking mosquitos with chemicals, the Dutch researchers tried using spores of the fungi M. anisopliae and B. bassiana mixed with a synthetic oil. The oil was ShellSol T, "a synthetical isoparaffinic hydrocarbon solvent." Floating on mosquito-breeding waters, this combination killed over 80% of the mosquito larvae in tests at a Kenyan site. Using the fungi without the oil was about 50% less effective.

The obvious question is what are possible harms from the fungal spores? According to the researchers, the spores and the oil pose "minimal risk to fish and aquatic organisms."

We likely don't know what impact large scale usage of such technology is. But might it be worth the risks to reduce the public health scourge posed by malaria? What would you want to know about this approach before adding it to the multi-pronged effort that will likely be needed to eradicate (or at least control) malaria?

Photo credit: The author