As villains go, the mosquito is well-cast. The tiny pest is unique in nature in two important respects. First, it has no redeeming value to the broader ecosystem (the name of the particular breed that transmits malaria — “anopheles” — actually means “useless” in Greek); and second, the mosquito is by far the deadliest creature on the planet to human beings, claiming 725,000 lives a year — principally to malaria, but also to diseases including dengue fever and West Nile virus.
Even Disney, the company that made ants and lobsters lovable, has it in for the mosquito. In a now-famous 1943 animated short “The Winged Scourge,” a Disney narrator brands mosquitoes “public enemy No. 1” for transmitting malaria, and cheers as the Seven Dwarves gleefully pump insecticide and stomp the bug.
Our first two columns explored how finding the parasite and completely curing infected people are two of the keys to ending this disease. The missing piece is to block transmission and stop the endless shuttling of the parasite back and forth between man and mosquito.