It’s not often that we think of scientists as heroes. More often than not they are portrayed as being a bit geeky, possibly dangerous. But last year, I began to see them in a different light.

I was in a meeting of scientists, quite a few of them chemists. One of our industrial partners was explaining how they were getting on with the search for a new chemical compound to kill mosquitoes.

Frankly, I didn’t understand most of the discussion because it was highly technical, but I saw a picture emerging of the amazing  battle that these scientists were engaged in every day.

To my highly untrained unscientific mind it sounded like this (please forgive me scientists everywhere, I’m a journalist):

‘We tried to add a blob onto the left quadrant of the compound but that didn’t work so we wrestled a grommet from another compound, and looked at how other scientists had tackled the problem in a completely different area. We lassooed some wild elements and added them to the mix, herding a whole tribe of unique components into the circle. And this strange compound seems to work.’

I know that sounds crazy, but that’s what it sounded like. What touched me was the sense of a battle. These scientists, as it were, struggling to defeat a powerful enemy that was fighting back in every direction.

That’s where the idea of Heroic Chemistry came from. It grew when I visited Burkina Faso and saw the work local scientists are doing at our field trial sites. Not only are they testing the new compounds to see if they work where it matters, where malaria is endemic, but they’re also testing to see if local insecticide-resistant mosquitoes are affected by the new compounds. And African scientists, who live with the problem on their doorstep, are also beginning to see new patterns of mosquito behaviour and think about completely new solutions. These are people who’ve suffered from malaria every year of their lives so they know the battleground well.

It’s all very exciting. We are not too far away from having several new designed-from-scratch insecticides available to fight malaria. According to a group of leading academics (Bhatt et al, Nature.com 2015) insecticide treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying with insecticides are responsible for the biggest part of the gains in the battle against malaria over the past 15 years. Nearly 78% of the cases averted are due to vector control, which means about 500 million people protected from malaria.

That’s why the work these scientists are doing is heroic. It really does have the potential to change the world as we know it. Millions of liveswill continue to be saved, millions of children will grow up into healthy productive lives, some of the poorest countries in the world will reap the economic benefits of a healthy population.

That’s why I wanted to make this film. To say thank you to the scientists who, behind the scenes, make it all happen. You’re my heroes.

Malaria rates halved throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the years between 2000 and 2015 as a consequence of greatly improved malaria interventions.

These impressive gains reflect a change of emphasis to make vector control a priority in malaria control programmes. Widespread distribution of insecticide-treated bednets made the biggest contribution, together with indoor residual spraying with insecticides through a coordinated control programme in 15 malaria endemic countries. Together these vector control interventions accounted for 78% of the gains.

Globally renowned researchers from leading institutions across the world compiled the figures using a data-driven approach informed by empirical observation in the field. Their conclusions emphasise the key role vector control plays in saving lives and pushing back malaria. They are also a reminder that there is still a long way to go, and the gains need to be maintained: vector-borne diseases like malaria can rebound easily, as past experience has shown.

Maintaining progress is no easy task, faced with increasing insecticide resistance in Africa.  Fortunately, after 10 years of successful development with our industrial partners, new insecticide formulations are already in action and proving effective where there is resistance, anti-resistance bednets are on the near horizon, and several novel public health insecticides for bednets and indoor residual spraying are well on the way, to provide the next generation of vector control tools. But a proactive approach to their use will be essential to prevent future resistance from developing.

Malaria still kills over 433 thousand people a year, mostly children and pregnant mothers; reason enough not to take the pressure off, and to apply all available measures to protect vulnerable people and communities from this ancient scourge. It will need a toolbox of insecticides, drugs, vaccines and diagnostics working together to bring about a permanent solution. Each has a vital role to play, with vector control continuing to be a key element in bringing this vector-borne disease to an end.

This authoritative report* highlights the vital role of vector control in saving lives from malaria, now and in the future. It is worth taking time to consider its analysis. Don’t take our word for it, read the facts for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

*The effect of malaria control on Plasmodium falciparum in Africa between 2000 and 2015. S Bhatt, et al.

Nature 526, 207–211 08 October 2015)

Read the Full Report here

Read a review of the Report here

A new $65 million initiative to boost malaria control was announced today in Geneva. IVCC signed a partnership agreement with Unitaid in a project that will combat resistance to insecticides by improving access to new, low-cost anti-mosquito sprays across Africa.

The Next Generation Indoor Residual Spray project, known as NgenIRS, will support countries in obtaining new and effective insecticides at lower prices to spray walls in homes and fight growing insecticide resistance. Over four years, the project aims to protect as many as 50 million people from malaria in 16 African countries. Despite its effectiveness in combating malaria, indoor spraying of walls has fallen by 40 per cent in the past four years. The drop is due to increased resistance of mosquitoes to older products and higher cost of new alternatives.

IVCC will team up with the US President’s Malaria Initiative, Abt Associates, PATH and the Global Fund to work with industry and country malaria-control programmes to make alternative insecticides with high efficacy more readily available in countries with a high burden of malaria. The initiative will use a co-payment from Unitaid to bring down the price of these new and more effective products in the short term.

A further aim is to reduce the cost of procuring products in the long term through improved forecasting and increased competition among manufacturers.

Welcoming the project, Dr Nick Hamon, IVCC CEO said, “recent evidence has shown that insecticides are the first line of defence against malaria, responsible for nearly 80 per cent of malaria cases averted since 2000. We are working with our industry partners to bring to market as soon as possible novel insecticides that are in the pipeline.’

Lelio Marmora, Executive Director of Unitaid said that the initiative would bolster the central role of insecticides in controlling malaria. “If the insecticide resistance continues to spread unabated, there could be 120,000 more deaths from malaria a year”, he said. “Unless newer insecticides are used, we run the risk of considerable reversals in the fight against malaria. This is the first of many other initiatives by Unitaid to control the spread of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.”

Speaking at the launch of the project, Dr Pedro Alonso, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, said that it would help maintain the effectiveness of vector control in the short term and encourage competition as prices decrease and demand grows. “Effective vector control is a cornerstone of our global strategy for malaria,’ he said. “It is responsible for many of the gains seen over the last decade in malaria control and elimination. We welcome this joint initiative to accelerate the development and deployment of new insecticides and vector control tools.”

Find out more at www.ivcc.com/market-access/ngenirs/

Zika virus is the latest vector borne disease to hit the headlines. It is primarily transmitted by infected mosquitos, but one of the reasons it’s been in the headlines is that it can also be transmitted by sexual contact.

There’s also great concern because of the links to Zika virus and microcephaly, a medical condition in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head, which can lead mental and other complications. Menacing, especially as you can have the virus without being aware of it.

The jury is still out on the specifics of how the virus is spread but there is clear evidence that the main culprit is the mosquito — in this case the species Aedes aegypti, which is also responsible for transmitting yellow fever, dengue fever and chikungunya. It’s reported that the mosquito can bite four or five people in the course of one blood meal, meaning that it can be spread very rapidly. The virus has already been reported in many Latin American and Caribbean countries and some reports suggest as many as 1.5 million people may now be affected.

So Zika virus joins malaria as a threatening mosquito-transmitted disease. There is all manner of crazy speculation around as to how the disease has become so prevalent — it was first identified in Uganda as long ago as 1947. As you would expect with a story that has all the potential elements of media hype, there’s a lot of ‘quackery’ (as one eminent entomologist described it) flying around about about the origins of the current outbreak. So far there is no scientific basis for any of this, but the speculation prompted the WHO to state categorically that there is no evidence linking Zika to genetically modified mosquitos.

So what do we know? To save me repeating what has already been written, consult the briefing paper below:

Zika Virus, Vector Control and IVCC.