Malaria Research and Control

Malaria is caused by *Plasmodium* parasites transmitted through the bites of infected *Anopheles* mosquitoes, and despite decades of intervention it still kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers work across the full chain of transmission — from sequencing parasite genomes to understand how *P. falciparum* evolves resistance to artemisinin-based drugs, to tracking how insecticide resistance spreads through mosquito populations and undermines bed-net programs. A central open problem is how to stay ahead of resistance on two fronts simultaneously: sustaining the efficacy of frontline antimalarials while preserving the chemical tools used to control the vectors that carry the parasite. Vaccine development adds a third dimension, with candidates like RTS,S offering partial protection but leaving unresolved questions about durability, population-level impact, and how shifting rainfall patterns and land use will reshape transmission in coming decades.

Works

178,121

Total citations

2,666,218

Keywords

Plasmodium falciparumArtemisinin ResistanceMalaria ParasiteMosquito VectorsAntimalarial DrugGenome Sequence