Advances in Malariology: African Perspective

Malaria, mosquitoes and chicken. That's what Rickard Ignell had on his mind when he conducted his studies in Ethiopia. Malaria is a major health issue in Ethiopia, with about 5 million cases and 70,000 deaths a year. Humans and animals share living space in western Ethiopia, where Ignell, a professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science, was planning to do his research. But little was known about how mosquitoes interact with various animals. Do certain animals attract the insects? Do other animals repel them? Ignell set out to investigate in the hope that such knowledge might be useful in preventing mosquitoes from biting humans and spreading malaria. His research group studied Anopheles arabiensis, a major malaria-carrying species of mosquitoes in sub-Saharan Africa.