Microbes may hold key to malaria control

They say that when anopheles gambiae mosquitoes have bacteria in their intestines, an immune response is activated that stops them from being infected with plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly species of the micro-organisms that cause malaria. The scientists believe that their research may lead to new ways of controlling malaria that kills a child every 30 seconds.

On the Johns Hopkins' website a senior scientist in the study Professor George Dimopoulos said their research suggests that the microbial flora of mosquito is stimulating immune activity that protects the mosquito from plasmodium infection. "The same immune factors that are needed to control the mosquitoes' infection from the microbes are also defending against the malaria parasite plasmodium," he said.