Our Approach

Target Malaria is an innovative project aiming to reduce the population of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes in sub-Saharan Africa. By reducing the population of malaria mosquitoes, we aim to reduce the transmission of the disease, allowing people in affected areas to live without the burden of malaria and freeing up resources currently used to combat the disease.

There are 3550 Mosquitoes Worldwide and 677 of those in Africa
Target Malaria's work specifically targets 3 species: anopheles gambiae, anopheles coluzzii and anopheles arabiensis

Worldwide there are more than 3,570 species of mosquitoes, with 677 of those species are in Africa. Malaria is spread by the bite of female  Anopheles  mosquitoes. More than 475  Anopheles  species have been described worldwide, and more than 30 are considered a public health problem. Amongst these, only 3 very closely related species are responsible for most malaria transmission:  Anopheles gambiae , Anopheles coluzzii and  Anopheles arabiensis .

We plan to tackle malaria at the source: the malaria mosquitoes.

Our strategy focuses on decreasing the number of female vector mosquitoes in a population because only females bite and their number usually determines future population size.

Targeting these mosquitos can help save many of the 580,000 peeople who die from malaria in Africa every year, 78% of which are children under the age of 5.

Our technology specifically targets these Anopheles species and so should not affect other types of mosquitoes or insects in the surrounding environment. Our approach is therefore malaria control by mosquito control.