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.
Worldwide there are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes, with 837 of those species are in Africa. Malaria is spread by the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes. More than 500 Anopheles species have been described worldwide, and more than 30 are considered a public health problem but out of them only 3 very closely related species are responsible for most transmission of malaria: 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.
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.
