The rise of the British urban mosquito

There's a paper in PLOS One detailing an experiment with water butts where it was seen that mosquito breeding grounds in urban environments show higher populations, but lower species diversity.  Interestingly, A. plumbeus (German wikipedia, as there is no English entry yet) seems increasingly to breed in this environment, which has a potential impact on public health as a carrier of West Nile virus.

“Mosquitoes in urban containers were less species-rich but present in significantly higher densities (100.4±21.3) per container than those in rural containers (77.7±15.1). Urban containers were dominated by Culex pipiens (a potential vector of West Nile Virus [WNV]) and appear to be increasingly exploited by Anopheles plumbeus (a human-biting potential WNV and malaria vector).”

— British Container Breeding Mosquitoes: The Impact of Urbanisation and Climate Change on Community Composition and Phenology

The BBC have a news article on the story here.

Malaria Vaccine Initiative in the Guardian

The Guardian newspaper (UK) has run a nice feature which give an introductory overview about the work of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative, for whom I am currently doing some mathematical modelling work.

Malaria vaccines: from impossible to probable

“This week we celebrate the progress being made on both fronts: to expand the reach of existing tools against malaria and to develop and make available effective vaccines. It’s also a time to look forward to what could be—a future where parents no longer lose their children to this preventable disease”

— Ashley Birkett, PATH