Engineers apply imaging technology to help in the fight against malaria

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Engineers at Warwick University are using imaging technology and robust algorithms to help combat malaria in Tanzania.

Researchers at Warwick University’s School of Engineering are using the technology to image thousands of mosquitoes to help develop better netting against the malaria-spreading insect.

Warwick University engineers - David Towers, Natalia Angarita and Catherine Towers - are helping entomologists at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine explore the best insecticide treatment and physical design of the protection for sleeping people in areas where mosquitoes are a problem.

Their work is part of AvecNet, a €12m research project funded by an FP7 grant.

The entomologists at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine are carrying out their latest experiments in a swamp in Tanzania that is home to a population of mosquitoes where some are resistant to insecticide and others are not.

They have built a hut at this site mimicking the typical housing and sleeping arrangements for local people. They need to experiment at night when people are at greatest risk of being bitten by anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, which is  the species responsible for transmission of the malaria parasite that is the most dangerous to humans.

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