Repeat infection with malaria parasites might make mosquitoes more dangerous
Friday, July 17, 2015 - 08:30
in Health & Medicine
In malaria-endemic regions, humans are often infected repeatedly with the Plasmodium parasite. Little is known about possible co-infection and its consequences in the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit the disease. A new study reports that not only can individual mosquitoes accumulate infections from multiple blood feeds, but also that an existing malaria infection makes mosquitoes more susceptible to a second infection, and that infections reach higher densities when another strain is already present.