Foot Odor and Malaria Prevention: Who Knew?
Scientific advances and discoveries are often made serendipitously. However, in some cases they occur when passionate scientists are willing or crazy enough to use themselves as “guinea pigs” in experiments to unravel a mystery. This was the case for a Dutch scientist named Bart Knols who first discovered 15 years ago that mosquitoes were attracted to foot odor by standing in a dark room naked and examining where he was bitten the most. But, it was difficult for scientists to figure out a way to put this knowledge to use.
Enter Dr. Fredros Okumu of Tanzania’s Ifakara Health Institute who put the knowledge to good use in a recent study that showed that mosquito traps scented with human foot odor attracted four times as many mosquitoes as human volunteers. The mosquitoes that fly into the traps are subsequently killed by poisoning.
Okumu mixed eight chemical compounds together to perfect the “foot odor” attractant and then experimented with several poisons that killed up to 95 percent of the trapped insects Okumu believes that he can use the traps as a possible cost-effective way to reduce the incidence of malaria. The disease is caused by four species of Plasmodium parasite and is primarily transmitted to humans after being bitten by Plasmodium-infected Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes.
His research was originally funded by a $100,000 research grant but he recently was awarded $775,000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada to create an affordable mosquito trap that could be used outside of homes. Determining the correct location of the traps is one of the major hurdles that must be overcome to commercialize the product.
According to Okumo, if the devices are placed too close to people it would increase the risk of mosquito bites (malaria) whereas if placed too far away they would be ineffective as malarial control devices. He is currently developing commercial traps that will cost between $4 and $27 per trap.
While worldwide malaria infection rates continue to decline (mainly because of bed nets and indoor insecticide spraying) there are more than 220 million new cases of malaria each year. According to UN statistics almost 800,000 of the infected persons die—most of them are children in Africa.
Sometimes, low tech solutions to complex problems can make a world of difference!
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!
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