Malaria

Halting mosquito life cycles to prevent the spread of disease

Malaria is a life‑threatening disease that is spread through the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes and remains a major health problem across Africa. While measures such as insecticide‑treated bed nets and indoor spraying have helped reduce malaria in many places, their effectiveness is increasingly threatened. Mosquitoes are becoming resistant to the insecticides used to kill them, making it harder to control malaria using current approaches alone.

One promising but underused way to tackle this problem is to focus on where mosquitoes breed.

Mosquito larvae grow in small pools of standing water, where they depend on tiny organisms such as bacteria and algae for food. Previous research has shown that bodies of water containing mosquito larvae tend to have a richer mix of bacteria than those without larvae. This suggests that these microorganisms play an important role in helping mosquitoes survive and develop. However, mosquito breeding sites are complex ecosystems, and much more needs to be understood about how these organisms interact.

Through her Foundation-funded project, Dr Akua Obeng Forson from the University of Ghana will be building expertise to better understand the roles of both bacteria and algae in mosquito breeding habitats. She will be conducting this project at Birmingham City University, alongside host researcher Dr Kwabena Duedu. By identifying which microorganisms support mosquito growth, the researchers hope to uncover new ways to stop mosquitoes from reaching adulthood, before they can spread malaria, and other diseases like dengue, Zika and yellow fever.

Water and mosquito samples from breeding sites in Ghana will be analysed using advanced DNA‑based methods. The results are expected to provide valuable evidence to guide future malaria control strategies and help protect communities most at risk of mosquito‑borne diseases.