‘An alert study on the diurnal behavior of malaria mosquitoes’ – Central African Republic
“Daytime mosquito predation has long been neglected. Researchers from the Institute of Research for Development in Bangui – Central African Republic – have just called into question studies carried out in the past on the behavior of mosquitoes during the day.
” Mosquito bites during the day exceed previous estimates “, underline the researchers in their study published in the journal PNAS, May 10, 2022.
According to the researchers, “about 20-30% of mosquito bites” occur during the day in Bangui, when people are sitting in their homes without any protection. That is to say, when the latter are not under an insecticide impregnated mosquito net. These bites “take place at any time of the day,” said Diego Ayala, medical entomologist and member of the study’s research team.
However, “testing for the malaria pathogen, Plasmodium falciparum, showed that night- and day-biting mosquitoes had similar infection rates. If nothing is done, the transmission of malaria in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, would be “out of control”.
