23/11/05

Mosquitoes prefer to bite ‘attractive’ minority

A malaria-carrying mosquito takes a blood meal Copyright: WHO-TDR

By: Lei Du

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Mosquitoes prefer to bite ‘attractive’ minority</h1>
<h4>By: Lei Du</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>Scientists have worked out how much people vary in their attractiveness to mosquitoes carrying malaria — 20 per cent of those at risk receive 80 per cent of infectious bites, they say.</P><br />
<P>Targeting public health interventions to those most at risk could lead to more effective malaria control, say the researchers. </P><br />
<P>They warn, however, that more research is needed to identify what makes some people more attractive to mosquitoes than others.</P><br />
<P>The study published in tomorrow’s (24 November) <em>Nature </em>used data from about 5,000 children in 90 communities across Africa. It looked at how many bites the children got and the proportion that developed malaria, a disease that claims more than a million lives every year.</P><br />
<P>Some people get more bites than others because, chemically, they are more attractive to mosquitoes, says lead author David Smith of the US National Institutes of Health. Other factors such as living near mosquito habitats, being pregnant and living in poor-quality housing also raise the risk of being bitten, he says.</P><br />
<P>Bart Knols, a mosquito researcher at the Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency, says the study provides “a clear mathematical explanation for phenomena observed before but never reported in such detail”.</P><br />
<P>Knols adds that a lot of time, energy and money could be saved by “finding people who are most ‘dangerous’ in terms of disease transmission, and selectively treating them, or protecting them from mosquito bites.”</P><br />
<P>Smith’s team suggests that such a targeted approach could be more effective than using broader malaria control measures. </P><br />
<P>But as Smith points out, more research is needed to identify those most at risk. “There are not very many good methods available at the present time,” he told SciDev.Net.<BR></P><br />
<P><a  href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7067/full/nature04024.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in <EM>Nature</EM></A><BR><BR>Reference: <em>Nature</em> 438, 492 (2005)</P></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/mosquitoes-prefer-to-bite-attractive-minority/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/mosquitoes-prefer-to-bite-attractive-minority/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Scientists have worked out how much people vary in their attractiveness to mosquitoes carrying malaria — 20 per cent of those at risk receive 80 per cent of infectious bites, they say.

Targeting public health interventions to those most at risk could lead to more effective malaria control, say the researchers.

They warn, however, that more research is needed to identify what makes some people more attractive to mosquitoes than others.

The study published in tomorrow’s (24 November) Nature used data from about 5,000 children in 90 communities across Africa. It looked at how many bites the children got and the proportion that developed malaria, a disease that claims more than a million lives every year.

Some people get more bites than others because, chemically, they are more attractive to mosquitoes, says lead author David Smith of the US National Institutes of Health. Other factors such as living near mosquito habitats, being pregnant and living in poor-quality housing also raise the risk of being bitten, he says.

Bart Knols, a mosquito researcher at the Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency, says the study provides “a clear mathematical explanation for phenomena observed before but never reported in such detail”.

Knols adds that a lot of time, energy and money could be saved by “finding people who are most ‘dangerous’ in terms of disease transmission, and selectively treating them, or protecting them from mosquito bites.”

Smith’s team suggests that such a targeted approach could be more effective than using broader malaria control measures.

But as Smith points out, more research is needed to identify those most at risk. “There are not very many good methods available at the present time,” he told SciDev.Net.

Link to full article in Nature

Reference: Nature 438, 492 (2005)