A significant malaria outbreak earlier this year in Ethiopia was thought to have been caused by an invasive mosquito species, according to scientists. This result, which experts have dubbed concerning, suggests that the progress made in the fight against malaria may be in jeopardy.
The Persian Gulf and India have seen the most of the Anopheles stephensi mosquito species. It was spotted in Djibouti in 2012, and since then, it has also been reported in Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Nigeria. The World Health Organization is attempting to stop the insects from spreading further in Africa since mosquitoes are thought to be the cause of a recent surge in malaria cases in Djibouti.
Fitsum Tadesse, a specialist in malaria, suggested during a presentation at the American Society of Tropical Medicine meeting on Tuesday that the invading mosquitoes were also to blame for an outbreak in Ethiopia.
Health officials in Dire Dawa, a significant transportation hub, reported a sharp increase in malaria in January. The Armauer Hansen Research Institute’s chief scientist, Tadesse, joined in with his team to look into it. They monitored more than 200 cases of malaria, looked at potential mosquito breeding grounds, and tested invasive mosquito populations for the malaria parasite.
The mosquitoes that often spread malaria in Africa weren’t found in great numbers. Instead, they discovered invading mosquitoes in great quantities. Tadesse and colleagues came to the conclusion that the outbreak was “highly linked” to the invasive insects.
Thomas Churcher, a professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial College London who was not involved in the research, said that the new findings were “terrifying.”
According to him, rural areas in Africa have seen the majority of malaria cases because native mosquitoes don’t often like to reproduce in smoggy cities or in man-made containers like buckets. However, these circumstances are ideal for invading mosquitoes.
“If these mosquitoes get a toehold in Africa, it could be phenomenally bad,” he said. The main mosquito-control measures used in Africa — like bed nets and indoor spraying — aren’t likely to work against the invasive bugs, since they tend to bite people outdoors.
Churcher claimed that despite this, experts are unaware of the prevalence of invading mosquito species or the magnitude of malaria they are responsible for.
According to Aklilu Getnet, an Ethiopian researcher who studies malaria, the disease has significantly increased this year. He claimed that malaria has suffered as a result of extended rainy seasons and the turmoil in northern Ethiopia.
“We are very worried,” he said, saying that until recently, Ethiopia had seen a big drop in malaria. “What we are seeing now is a significant increase.”
The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Anne Wilson, an expert in infectious diseases, said that African communities may imitate mosquito-control strategies employed in India, such as introducing fish that consume the larvae or banning containers containing standing water.
She claimed that the decreasing progress against malaria is making it more difficult to stop the parasitic disease, which is thought to claim more than 600,000 lives annually, largely in Africa.
“We’re waiting to see the impact of new tools like pesticides and vaccines,” she said. “But if this mosquito starts to take off, we may be out of time.”
