Shots - Health News Mosquito Maven Takes Bites For Malaria
Research Originally published on Wed January 2, 2013 11:47 am
Most of us do everything possible to avoid mosquitoes. But one
Italian researcher literally sacrifices her right arm to keep
the lowly insects alive. Chiara Adolina is studying a new
malaria drug, and she needs the little suckers for her
experiments. So she feeds them each day with her own blood. She
extends her arm into a mosquito cage to give the insects
"breakfast." Several dozen mosquitoes spread across her forearm
and jam their proboscises into her skin. "Can you see how fat
they become?" she says. "Look at that tummy." Adolina
affectionately refers to her mosquitoes as "my girls." Only
female mosquitoes transmit malaria, so she's far more interested
in the girls in her mosquito colony than the guys. "The female
mosquitoes bite because they need the proteins of blood to make
the shell of their eggs," she says. "So they're pregnant
ladies." Adolina raises the insects at the Shoklo Malar