Number of mosquito-borne parasites, not bites determine malaria infection, says study

New Delhi: As per a new study, scientists have found that the number of parasites each mosquito carries, rather than the number of bites, determines the chance of successful malaria infection.

Malaria is spread when mosquitoes bite humans and release microscopic parasites, which live in the salivary glands of the mosquitoes, into the person's bloodstream.

The parasites then travel to the liver, where they mature and multiply for 8-30 days before spreading throughout the bloodstream and causing the symptoms of malaria.

To determine the intensity of malaria transmission, researchers and international organisations like the World Health Organisation currently rely on a measure called the entomological inoculation rate (EIR): the average number of potentially infectious mosquito bites per person per year.

However, this does not take into account how infectious each of those bites may be - each bite is considered equally infectious.

Now, researchers have determined that the number of parasites each individual mosquito carries influences whether a person will develop malaria.

Some mosquitoes can be 'hyperinfected', making them particularly likely to pass on the disease.

(With PTI inputs)