Disease

Insecticide resistance could be ‘devastating’ - Malaria

Mosquitoes are becoming more resistant to the chemical poisons commonly used to control malaria, raising fears that another 120 000 people could die from the disease every year.

This was the warning from Professor Hillary Ranson of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine at the opening of the sixth Pan-African Malaria Conference in Durban, South Africa on Monday.

Ranson said global progress in controlling malaria was at risk of being eroded and the impact of insecticide resistance could be “devastating”.

The bad news was that no new insecticides to combat malaria would be available before the end of the decade.

In the absence of new anti-malaria insecticides, governments in Africa and other malaria belts should step up efforts to monitor insecticide resistance and to rotate the variety of insecticides used to reduce the spread of the disease.

Malaria affects about 219 million people every year, and kills up to 660 000.