The TransMalariaBloc project

Malaria at a glance

• Malaria is caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium and is transmitted by a mosquito vector.

• Half the world’s population (around 3.3 billion people) is at high risk of contracting malaria.

• Almost 500 million people are infected with malaria every year.

• Malarial disease causes 1-3 million deaths every year.

• 85% of all malaria related deaths are that of African children under the age of five.

• Pregnant women are at high risk with links between malaria and premature delivery, low birth-weight and increased infant mortality.

• Malaria associated morbidity poses an enormous barrier to socioeconomic development.

Malaria in Europe:

• Malaria has not always been a disease of the poor tropical regions of the world.

• A world-wide malaria eradication campaign after the Second World War saw the successful eradication of malaria from Europe, largely through vector control.

• However, more people than ever are travelling to endemic areas and around 50,000 malaria cases are imported into the EU every year.

Malaria control

• There is no effective vaccine.

• Insecticide and malaria drug resistance is on the increase, highlights the need for the development of novel control strategies

•  Interventions targeted at the vector stages is central in the ongoing fight against malaria:    

• Transmission of malaria through its mosquito vector is the weakest link in the chain that maintains the disease cycle: parasite numbers reach their lowest ebb during their early developmental stages in the mosquito.

• This bottleneck represents a likely point for intervention that could provide transmission blocking.

TransMalariaBloc

• TransMalariaBloc is a foundation of European and African scientists that are at the forefront of malaria research that focus on complementary aspects of parasite transmission through the mosquito vector. 

• Members of this scientific alliance have been, and continue to be, central to the development and analysis of new tools targeted to blocking malaria transmission in the mosquito.

• The research of this scientific programme strives to identify and exploit novel transmission blocking strategies that targets the malaria mosquito vector.

Funding

This project is part of the European Union's Seventh Framework Program.