 |
MICROBES AND MOSQUITOS: QUICK-CHANGE ARTISTS Carried from person to person by mosquitos, the one-celled Plasmodium microbes that cause malaria reproduce so abundantly and often microbial populations with new genetic traits can quickly evolve. A single mosquito bite injects malaria microbes with varied genetic make-up into the human bloodstream. Medicine kills only some of these microbes; others survive and reproduce.
Even worse, the mosquitos that transmit malaria microbes can also rapidly change their genetic makeup, producing mosquito populations resistant to insecticides.
 |
|
|
 |
| DDT and other insecticides were widely used in the 1950s and 1960s in a global effort to wipe out malaria-carrying mosquitos. The spraying did reduce malaria rates for a time, but mosquitos eventually developed a resistance to the chemicals. |
 | | The released parasites (yellow), which go on to infect new cells or are ingested by another mosquito. |
|
 | | Blood cells with the malaria parasite within the cells. |
|
 | | Red blood cells that have ruptured (front and center) as a result of malaria parasite activity. |
|
