Eric Ochomo News Today

After declining for decades, deaths from the disease are suddenly on the rise.

After declining for decades, deaths from the disease are suddenly on the rise. What’s changed?

Turkana region was previously thought to be too dry for the mosquitoes that carry malaria-causing parasites.

The discovery of malaria cases in a part of Kenya long considered safe from the disease raises concerns about East Africa’s vulnerability to an emerging threat.

Turkana County in northwestern Kenya was supposed to be the land that malaria forgot. An arid, windy region abutting Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia, its climate was thought to be too dry for the mosquitoes that harbor malaria-causing parasites, and thus it has been excluded from national efforts to prevent the spread of the disease.

<p>Turkana County in northwestern Kenya was thought to be too dry for the mosquitoes that harbor malaria-causing parasites. But that assumption may have been wrong, according to a new study by malaria researchers at the Duke Global Health Institute and Moi University in Kenya. The arrival of a new mosquito and a more pernicious species of parasite could reverse the progress East Africa has made in controlling malaria.</p>

For a series on the health threats posed by mosquitoes, a Times reporter followed the insects into drainage pipes, bedrooms and the rainforest.

"Climate change and the rapid evolution of the insect have helped drive up malaria deaths and brought dengue and other mosquito-borne viruses to places that never had to worry about them."

The New York Times reports that a "squadron of young scientists and an army of volunteers" are "waging an all-out war on a creature that threatens the health of more people than any other on earth: the mosquito." They are testing new insecticides and ingenious new ways to deliver them. They are peer...

Climate change and the rapid evolution of the insect have helped drive up malaria deaths and brought dengue and other mosquito-borne viruses to places that never had to worry about them.