The Science Quiz | Revisiting malaria and its unique challenges

The Science Quiz appears thrice a week in the daily Science page. The page is available to read on all days except Saturday in the epaper.

Questions:

1. Malaria is caused by parasites transmitted through the bite of this female mosquito, discovered in 1897 by a British doctor. Name the mosquito and the doctor.

2. Which country contributes to more than half of the malaria cases in the World Health Organisation’s administrative Southeast Asia region?

3. Global warming, population displacement, and insecticide resistance are expected to speed up malaria transmission. Identify the cheapest and most-used antimalarial drug to which mosquitoes have become resistant over time.

4. This country made history in 2024 by launching the world’s first malaria vaccine as part of its immunisation programme. Name the country and the vaccine.

5. Which vaccine manufacturer has currently established production capacity for the second malaria vaccine, called R21/Matrix M?

Visual question: This chemist in 1939 identified the insecticidal properties of DDT, an achievement that later won him a Nobel Prize. Name him.

(Source: Public domain.)

Answers:

1. Anopheles stephensi; Ronald Ross
2. India
3. Chloroquine
4. Cameroon; RTS,S vaccine
5. Serum Institute of India

Visual: Paul Hermann Müller of Geigy Pharmaceutical