UC Davis scientist recounts battle with neuroinvasive West Nile virus

TTwenty-one scientists from five UC campuses are partnering with the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California to defeat one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases: malaria. Malaria infects some 350 to 500 million people a year, killing between 1 million and 2.5 million, according to the World Health Organization. Ninety percent of the global incidence of malaria occurs in Africa, where a child dies from the disease every 30 seconds. The UC Malaria Research and Control Group (MRCG) vows to change that. The group, formed in February 2006, is a branch of the UC Mosquito Research Program, a statewide program of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “We’re firmly committed to defeating the most formidable and challenging mosquito-borne disUC Malaria Research and Control Group vows to defeat malaria ease,” says medical entomologist and MRCG director Gregory Lanzaro, who also directs the UC Mosquito Research Program and the UC Davis Center for Vectorborne Diseases. “This is all about saving lives,” Lanzaro says. “It’s the right thing to do. We are combining compassion, technology and science to defeat a killer.” Malaria, first recognized 4,000 years ago and eradicated in the United States in the early 1950s, has been eliminated in many parts of Asia, Europe and the Americas, but is raging uncontrolled in many parts of Africa, Lanzaro says. “The spike can be attributed to more efficient mosquito vectors, increased pesticide and drug resistance, and socioeconomic factors, including struggling health systems.” Malaria threatens more than 100 countries and territories, with more than 40% of the world’s population at risk, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children under age 5 and pregnant women are most susceptible.