Episode description

Mosquitoes are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal. These tiny creatures transmit many diseases, but the most devastating is malaria. It kills over half a million people every year, most of them children.

So why are people still dying of malaria in such large numbers, when so much time and money has been invested in trying to eradicate it? What do we know about mosquitoes and malaria, and what do we still need to learn? CrowdScience visits Malawi, one of the African countries leading the way against malaria, with the rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine programme.

Presenter Caroline Steel is joined by a live audience and a panel of experts: Wongani Nygulu, Eggrey Aisha Kambewa and Steve Gowelo. Together they explore questions from our listeners in Malawi and around the world, like why female mosquitoes feed on blood while males drink nectar; why some people are more likely to be bitten by mosquitoes than others; and how we might modify the insects’ DNA to stop them spreading diseases.

About half a million children across Malawi have been vaccinated since 2019. We visit a clinic in nearby Chikwawa to meet the staff involved in the vaccination programme there, and the mothers embracing the opportunity to protect their babies against this deadly disease.

Recorded at Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust (MLW), Blantyre, Malawi.

Contributors: Dr. Wongani Nygulu, Epidemiologist, Malaria Alert Centre Eggrey Aisha Kambewa, MLW entomologist, MLW Dr. Steve Gowelo, University of California San Francisco Malaria Elimination Initiative

Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Jeremy Grange Researcher: Imaan Moin Additional Recording: Margaret Sessa Hawkins & Sophie Ormiston Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Liz Tuohy

(Photo: A mosquito, that is silhouetted against the moon, bites a human arm. Credit: LWA/Getty Images)