The importance of new tools and approaches to combat malaria transmission

Dr Tom Churcher discusses the importance of new tools and approaches to combat malaria transmission.

Dr Tom Churcher, from Imperial's Malaria Modelling Group, was interviewed on Voice of America following the announcement, by the World Health Organisation, that trials of a new malaria vaccine will take place in three African countries - Kenya, Ghana and Malawi.

The announcement was made in the lead up to World Malaria Day (April 25).

Dr Churcher, a Lecturer in Infectious Disease Dynamics, uses mathematical modelling to understand the best way to kill mosquitoes and eliminate vector-borne diseases through targeting transmission.

"Currently the majority of control is through the use of bednets but there is increasing fear that mosquitoes are becoming resistant to some of the insecticides on those bednets." said Dr Churcher.

"We need new ways of killing mosquitoes, new types of bednets, new types of drugs and vaccines."

The full interview can be watched via Voice of America.

Imperial's new Network of Excellence in Malaria is harnessing the power of interdisciplinary research across the college to tackle the disease in a number of ways, from the genetic control of mosquitoes to understanding why children are more vulnerable to malaria. Learn more about how Imperial is tackling malaria.