Antiparasite drug ivermectin cuts mosquito numbers by 80%

Abstract

Ivermectin, a drug commonly used to treat onchocerciasis (river blindness) in Africa, can kill mosquitoes that transmit malaria and may be another weapon in the fight against the disease, a new study indicates. Researchers from Colorado State University in Fort Collins and Senegal’s Ministry of Health and Medical Prevention compared the effect of ivermectin on mosquitoes in three villages where residents had received an annual dose of the drug to control onchocerciasis with the effect in three nearby (less than 12 km away) control villages whose residents had not been given the drug. Ivermectin “significantly reduced the proportion of Plasmodium falciparum infectious Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto (s.s.) [mosquitoes] …