This urban mosquito threatens to derail the fight against malaria in Africa
The Anopheles stephensi is a well-known malaria mosquito, but still sort of new in Ethiopia, where it has caused dramatic, out-of-season outbreaks in ill-equipped cities, new research shows.
Early this year, a startling report came out of the city of Dire Dawa, a transportation hub in eastern Ethiopia. "It was the first urban malaria outbreak in Ethiopia during the dry season," says Sarah Zohdy, a CDC entomologist who works with the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative. "And for context," she adds, "dry season malaria in Ethiopia is not something that happens."
During the rainy season or in rural areas, malaria, she says the reason for that surge in cases seems to fall squarely on the shoulders (or rather, the proboscises) of a relatively new arrival in Ethiopia — the mosquito.
