It’s not often that we think of scientists as heroes. More often than not they are portrayed as being a bit geeky, possibly dangerous. But last year, I began to see them in a different light.
I was in a meeting of scientists, quite a few of them chemists. One of our industrial partners was explaining how they were getting on with the search for a new chemical compound to kill mosquitoes.
Frankly, I didn’t understand most of the discussion because it was highly technical, but I saw a picture emerging of the amazing battle that these scientists were engaged in every day.
To my highly untrained unscientific mind it sounded like this (please forgive me scientists everywhere, I’m a journalist):
‘We tried to add a blob onto the left quadrant of the compound but that didn’t work so we wrestled a grommet from another compound, and looked at how other scientists had tackled the problem in a completely different area. We lassooed some wild elements and added them to the mix, herding a whole tribe of unique components into the circle. And this strange compound seems to work.’
I know that sounds crazy, but that’s what it sounded like. What touched me was the sense of a battle. These scientists, as it were, struggling to defeat a powerful enemy that was fighting back in every direction.
That’s where the idea of Heroic Chemistry came from. It grew when I visited Burkina Faso and saw the work local scientists are doing at our field trial sites. Not only are they testing the new compounds to see if they work where it matters, where malaria is endemic, but they’re also testing to see if local insecticide-resistant mosquitoes are affected by the new compounds. And African scientists, who live with the problem on their doorstep, are also beginning to see new patterns of mosquito behaviour and think about completely new solutions. These are people who’ve suffered from malaria every year of their lives so they know the battleground well.
It’s all very exciting. We are not too far away from having several new designed-from-scratch insecticides available to fight malaria. According to a group of leading academics (Bhatt et al, Nature.com 2015) insecticide treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying with insecticides are responsible for the biggest part of the gains in the battle against malaria over the past 15 years. Nearly 78% of the cases averted are due to vector control, which means about 500 million people protected from malaria.
That’s why the work these scientists are doing is heroic. It really does have the potential to change the world as we know it. Millions of liveswill continue to be saved, millions of children will grow up into healthy productive lives, some of the poorest countries in the world will reap the economic benefits of a healthy population.
That’s why I wanted to make this film. To say thank you to the scientists who, behind the scenes, make it all happen. You’re my heroes.
Don’t Take Our Word for It—Vector Control Saves Lives 18th April 2016Malaria rates halved throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the years between 2000 and 2015 as a consequence of greatly improved malaria interventions.
These impressive gains reflect a change of emphasis to make vector control a priority in malaria control programmes. Widespread distribution of insecticide-treated bednets made the biggest contribution, together with indoor residual spraying with insecticides through a coordinated control programme in 15 malaria endemic countries. Together these vector control interventions accounted for 78% of the gains.
Globally renowned researchers from leading institutions across the world compiled the figures using a data-driven approach informed by empirical observation in the field. Their conclusions emphasise the key role vector control plays in saving lives and pushing back malaria. They are also a reminder that there is still a long way to go, and the gains need to be maintained: vector-borne diseases like malaria can rebound easily, as past experience has shown.
Maintaining progress is no easy task, faced with increasing insecticide resistance in Africa. Fortunately, after 10 years of successful development with our industrial partners, new insecticide formulations are already in action and proving effective where there is resistance, anti-resistance bednets are on the near horizon, and several novel public health insecticides for bednets and indoor residual spraying are well on the way, to provide the next generation of vector control tools. But a proactive approach to their use will be essential to prevent future resistance from developing.
Malaria still kills over 433 thousand people a year, mostly children and pregnant mothers; reason enough not to take the pressure off, and to apply all available measures to protect vulnerable people and communities from this ancient scourge. It will need a toolbox of insecticides, drugs, vaccines and diagnostics working together to bring about a permanent solution. Each has a vital role to play, with vector control continuing to be a key element in bringing this vector-borne disease to an end.
This authoritative report* highlights the vital role of vector control in saving lives from malaria, now and in the future. It is worth taking time to consider its analysis. Don’t take our word for it, read the facts for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
*The effect of malaria control on Plasmodium falciparum in Africa between 2000 and 2015. S Bhatt, et al.
Nature 526, 207–211 08 October 2015)
Read a review of the Report here
$65M Boost for New Insecticide Use in Africa 1st February 2016A new $65 million initiative to boost malaria control was announced today in Geneva. IVCC signed a partnership agreement with Unitaid in a project that will combat resistance to insecticides by improving access to new, low-cost anti-mosquito sprays across Africa.
The Next Generation Indoor Residual Spray project, known as NgenIRS, will support countries in obtaining new and effective insecticides at lower prices to spray walls in homes and fight growing insecticide resistance. Over four years, the project aims to protect as many as 50 million people from malaria in 16 African countries. Despite its effectiveness in combating malaria, indoor spraying of walls has fallen by 40 per cent in the past four years. The drop is due to increased resistance of mosquitoes to older products and higher cost of new alternatives.
IVCC will team up with the US President’s Malaria Initiative, Abt Associates, PATH and the Global Fund to work with industry and country malaria-control programmes to make alternative insecticides with high efficacy more readily available in countries with a high burden of malaria. The initiative will use a co-payment from Unitaid to bring down the price of these new and more effective products in the short term.
A further aim is to reduce the cost of procuring products in the long term through improved forecasting and increased competition among manufacturers.
Welcoming the project, Dr Nick Hamon, IVCC CEO said, “recent evidence has shown that insecticides are the first line of defence against malaria, responsible for nearly 80 per cent of malaria cases averted since 2000. We are working with our industry partners to bring to market as soon as possible novel insecticides that are in the pipeline.’
Lelio Marmora, Executive Director of Unitaid said that the initiative would bolster the central role of insecticides in controlling malaria. “If the insecticide resistance continues to spread unabated, there could be 120,000 more deaths from malaria a year”, he said. “Unless newer insecticides are used, we run the risk of considerable reversals in the fight against malaria. This is the first of many other initiatives by Unitaid to control the spread of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.”
Speaking at the launch of the project, Dr Pedro Alonso, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, said that it would help maintain the effectiveness of vector control in the short term and encourage competition as prices decrease and demand grows. “Effective vector control is a cornerstone of our global strategy for malaria,’ he said. “It is responsible for many of the gains seen over the last decade in malaria control and elimination. We welcome this joint initiative to accelerate the development and deployment of new insecticides and vector control tools.”
Find out more at www.ivcc.com/market-access/ngenirs/
Novel Mosquito Net Marks Breakthrough in New LLINs 17th November 2016A novel mosquito net that combines the pyrrole chlorfenapyr and the pyrethroid alpha-cypermethrin represents a breakthrough in the development of Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) to control pyrethroid resistant mosquitoes.
A novel mosquito net that kills insecticide resistant mosquitoes which would normally survive exposure to standard pyrethroid treated nets marks a breakthrough in the development of new long-lasting nets that can meet the challenge of malaria control in countries in areas of high insecticide resistance, reports a new study published in Plos One. The project was a partnership between IVCC, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the West African vector control trial site (CREC) in Benin, which together with the chemical company BASF SE, have developed and evaluated a new type of long lasting net, Interceptor® G2.
LLINs that kill the Anopheline mosquitoes which transmit malaria are the simplest and most widely used method to prevent the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over half the population of sub-Saharan Africa now sleeps under LLIN and this has helped to reduce malaria cases by a third and mortality rates by two thirds over the last 15 years.
Until recently, the LLIN technology has been wholly dependent on pyrethroids as the only class of insecticide safe to use on LLIN. The rapid spread of resistance to these insecticides in malarial mosquitoes threatens further progress unless new types of insecticide which are both effective and safe can be developed. Professor Mark Rowland and Dr Raphael N’Guessan of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine anticipated this problem over 13 years ago. It was discussed with BASF to repurpose an insecticide which previously had been used to control termites and pests from indoor areas including commercial kitchens.
Mark Rowland said: “Back then we knew that selection of resistance to pyrethroids in malarial mosquitoes was only a question of time. The challenge was to identify a suitable insecticide that had right combination of residual efficacy against insects, low water solubility, no cross resistance to other classes of insecticide and was safe to use on nets. Chlorfenapyr, a pyrrole insecticide, seemed to have that rare collection of attributes and we started working with BASF. A few years later BASF and LSHTM had demonstrated chlorfenapyr’s potential in bioassay, subjected it to WHO toxicological risk assessment, and completed the first experimental hut trials, small-scale studies under house-like conditions in West and East Africa”.
In 2011, BASF entered into full partnership with IVCC and set its sights on developing a long lasting insecticidal net which would combine chlorfenapyr and the pyrethroid alpha-cypermethrin.
Dr Susanne Stutz, the BASF Project Manager, said: “Even then it was not plain sailing. Chlorfenapyr would simply not behave predictably in laboratory bioassay. However, when applied to nets and testing in experimental hut trials, chlorfenapyr would always kill mosquitoes that made contact with the netting. The explanation lies in the chlorfenapyr’s unique mode of action. Unlike standard public health insecticide which are neurotoxic, chlorfenapyr disrupts cellular respiratory pathways and is most toxic to mosquitoes which are active at night when they make contact with the net”.
The target product profile set by BASF and IVCC was a chlorfenpyr / alpha-cypermethrin mixture long-lasting insecticidal net that would remain effective against pyrethroid resistant mosquitoes after 20 standardised washes, a threshold established by WHO for all LLIN. Four years later, Interceptor® G2, has fulfilled its initial promise and in experimental hut trials killed over 70% of pyrethoid-resistant Anopheles gambiae when the standard pyrethroid LLIN killed only 20%. The long lasting formulation retained insecticidal activity on the net after 20 standardized washes in soap solution.
Raphael N’Guessan, the scientist who managed the trials in West Africa said: “The unique mode of action of chlorfenapyr means that insecticide resistance based on target site insensitivity in the insect nervous system and other mechanisms shows no cross resistance to chlorfenapyr. The mosquito mortality rates generated by Interceptor® G2 are similar to the rates generated by standard pyrethroid LLIN 10 years ago when most mosquitoes were fully susceptible to pyrethroids”
This publication marks the first of several trials of Interceptor® G2 carried out in African trial sites in Benin, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Tanzania. BASF has submitted the Interceptor® G2 dossier to the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme for interim recommendation expected in March 2017.
David Malone, IVCC Technical Manager, said: “Africa has become a net using culture. Insecticide treated nets are the most important tool we have to prevent malaria. This new technology demonstrates that insecticide treated nets will continue to be an essential weapon in the fight against malaria in the future despite pyrethroid resistance.”
The development and evaluation of Interceptor® G2 is the result of partnership between the BASF SE of Germany, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and IVCC.
The full publication can be found at Plos One:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165925
Science Magazine this month (October 2016) features an excellent article about the work of IVCC and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) in fighting insecticide resistance in mosquitoes.
The article, by Science contributing correspondent Kal Kupferschmidt, highlights the threat to malaria reduction by growing insecticide resistance. It points to the critical work of IVCC and LSTM in ‘evaluating new weapons to fight mosquitoes’. LSTM does this through its vector biology programmes, and IVCC through working with industrial agrochemical giants to create innovate new insecticides that will combat insecticide resistance.
IVCC’s CEO, Nick Hamon, emphasises the challenge of keeping industrial companies engaged in developing new insecticides when the potential market for new public health insecticides is small. The future is hopeful, however, as he points out three potential new insecticides will shortly be moved into the final testing stages.
Read the full article here: