Sally Paulson and Jeffrey Bloomquist

The War on Malaria

Virginia Tech scientists combine entomology, chemistry, genetics, and computer science to fight a deadly disease

A mosquito bite disturbed a Tanzanian child’s sleep. The mosquito, a female of the genus Anopheles, discovered a way through the net over the girl’s bed and infected her with a mobile, single-celled parasite known as Plasmodium falciparum. After finding its way to her liver, the parasite multiplied and escaped into the bloodstream to devour her red blood cells. Unless properly diagnosed and treated in the weeks that follow, she may develop a life-threatening fever and become part of one of the largest public health crises in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to figures available from the World Health Organization, malaria will infect more than 10 million individuals in Tanzania alone and claim more than 14,000 lives in the East African country—a fraction of the devastation the continent suffers each year.

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