Use of Insecticide-Treated Nets Drives Resistance in Mosquito Vectors

A pyrethroid-resistance–associated allele in a key malaria vector has swept through southern Africa since 2002, when scaled-up use of pyrethroid-treated bed nets started.

Bed nets treated with insecticides, typically pyrethroids, are an essential element in malaria control. Increasingly, resistance of malaria vectors has been reported, particularly metabolic resistance (caused by increased detoxification of insecticide). To understand genetic changes associated with metabolic resistance, investigators studied the Africa-wide population structure of Anopheles funestus, a major malaria vector, using microsatellite markers, whole genome sequencing, and fine-scale sequencing at a major resistance locus. The main resistance genes conferring metabolic resistance to pyrethroids are two duplicated cytochrome P450 monooxygenases.

Investigators compared mosquitoes collected in southern Africa before 2002 (predating ins…

Reviewing Author

Mary E. Wilson, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardOneHealthTrust (formerly Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy); Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsJournal of Travel Medicine

Mary E. Wilson, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardOneHealthTrust (formerly Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy); Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsJournal of Travel Medicine

Use of Insecticide-Treated Nets Drives Resistance in Mosquito Vectors

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Reviewing Author