Key weapons in the fight against malaria, pyrethroid insecticides, are losing their edge. Over the past decade, billions of dollars have been spent on distributing long-lasting pyrethroid-treated bed nets and on indoor spraying. Focused in Africa, where most malaria deaths occur, these efforts have greatly reduced the disease's toll. But they have also created intense selection pressure for mosquitoes to develop resistance.
"Data are coming in thick and fast indicating increasing levels of resistance, and also of resistance in new places," says Jo Lines, an entomological epidemiologist and head of vector control at the Global Malaria Programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO now intends to launch a global strategy to tackle the problem by the end of the year.
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Tue Jul 5 14:34:58 2011