I was pleasantly surprised to note that the lead article in malaria world this week is an article by the editor of Malaria World Journal, Bart Knols, expressing concern about the impact of chemicals used for mosquito control. In the article entitled ‘A shot in the foot: Could chemical control of malaria vectors threaten food security?’, Knols expresses concern that the malaria research community has become enslaved to thinking that controlling malaria mosquitos equals the use of chemical insecticides.
The article does include the unsupported statement ‘Although chemical control has undoubtedly saved millions of lives, which, morally speaking would immediately justify its continued use, it has many sides that may ultimately cost more lives than it saves.’ There is no reference to support the life saving claim of insecticide use, so this article is clearly a long way from questioning the overall transmission story. But at least it is a useful start that such an eminent researcher in the malaria community is willing to question some of the dogma.
Knols states in his article, that after a posting on LinkedIn arguing against aerial spraying of insecticides in Africa, he was called a tree-hugger!
However, Knols still wants to kill mosquitos and is a believer in the mosquito transmission story. Much of his article is promoting other methods of killing mosquitos such as traps or genetic methods. He admits he is actively involved in the development of insecticide-free products and strategies for mosquito control. He has links to a company, K&S Holding BV, that has developed mass trapping options for dengue vectors based on the use of Biogents A.G. (Germany) traps.
Nonetheless, if members of the malaria research community are starting to become aware that poisoning the environment might have negative consequences, perhaps soon some of them, less financially reliant on the purveyors of poison to kill mosquitos or ‘treat’ people, might start to look more deeply for the real causes of the deadly ailment called malaria.
(Picture from mosquitojoe.com)