A group of researchers is calling on colleagues around the world to join them in what they call 'pathogen prospecting' by tracking down archival specimens of mosquitoes in museums and other collections to examine them for pathogens that would have infected people with malaria while feeding on their blood.
A group of researchers is calling on colleagues around the world to join them in what they call 'pathogen prospecting' by tracking down archival specimens of mosquitoes in museums and other collections to examine them for pathogens that would have infected people with malaria while feeding on their blood.
"Historic entomology collections around the world have huge potential to answer multiple research questions," says McMaster paleopathologist Megan Brickley, who holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Bioarchaeology of Human Disease."Our focus was on malaria, but there's great potential to extend beyond that."
The scientific study of historical malaria has been challenging because the infection typically leaves little trace, particularly in the remains of patients who have survived the fever-inducing disease and died later from other causes. "People tend to associate malaria with tropical and subtropical regions, but in the past, there was also malaria in the Netherlands, the UK, and even in Finland above the Arctic Circle," says co-author Amanda Cooke, a PhD student whose research focuses on historical malaria in Canada.
"As the deadliest vector-borne disease, malaria continues to present a challenge to those battling the disease and underscores an urgent need for the development of novel insecticides or vaccines," says co-author Mark Nelder, a medical and veterinary entomologist with Public Health Ontario who specializes in vector-borne diseases.
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