Professor of the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology of AltSU Roman Yakovlev is testing Russian repellents in West Africa

7 September 2022 Department of Information and Media Communications
Photo by Roman Yakovlev

The next trip of Professor of the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology Roman Yakovlev to Mali is primarily aimed at testing repellents of Russian manufacture in the tropics.

“Last year, I established collaboration with the University of Bamako in the Republic of Mali on the study of ecology and the method of controlling malaria-carrying mosquitoes,” said Professor Yakovlev. “Now I am also at the research facility, where we are carrying out a new stage of work. In addition, today we have begun initiative work on approbation of domestic repellents. We study how active our repellents are against the African mosquito species Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti.

AltSU biologist explained that these are the most common and most dangerous mosquito species in subtropical and tropical Africa. Representatives of the genus Anopheles carry various types of malaria, and Aedes - dengue fever. Malaria and dengue fever are extremely common diseases in hot regions of the planet. Every year, about half a billion people fall ill with these infections, of which about a million die.

“Now we are starting with a series of interesting experiments using a laboratory culture of mosquitoes of both species. I believe that these studies are very important given the fact that in recent decades the activity of Russian tourists in tropical regions has increased significantly. Tropical infections are not easily diagnosed in Russian conditions, so it is advisable for those visiting the tropics to protect themselves from bites with various barrier methods, such as mosquito nets and mosquito repellents,” Roman comments from Bamako.

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