Friday, June 10, 2005

Say "Cheese" and Die, Bug!!

Ah, those Brits--they've got something here:

A FUNGUS similar to cheese mould could become a valuable weapon in the fight against malaria, scientists report today.

British research has revealed that a common fungus can reduce malarial transmission by 98 per cent in the laboratory, by killing the mosquitoes that pass the parasite on.

The findings, from a team at the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College, London, suggest that spraying living quarters with the fungus, which is harmless to humans, could help to prevent infection with a disease that kills up to 2.7 million people a year.
A second study, in Tanzania, has indicated that the fungus is likely to be a practical method of malaria control in the field. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2-1647983%2C00.html)


DDT, of course, kills the pests BEFORE they bite. But no amount of scientific evidence shall interfere with the ban on DDT.

1 comment:

Terrence Berres said...

Making prescient that losing candidate for a new Wisconsin license plate motto: "Eat cheese or die!"