According to the Severe Malaria Observatory the mosquito-borne disease is the leading cause of child mortality in the African nation of Burkina Faso.
根据“严重疟疾观察所”报告,蚊传播疾病是非洲国家布基纳法索儿童死亡的主要原因。
It's a loss no parent should have to suffer.
没有父母应该承担这样的损失。
Losing a child was really painful for me, or for any parent for that matter.
失去孩子对我来说是痛苦的,或者对任何父母来说。
So if we can find a solution against this disease which killed my child, other people we will thank God.
如果我们可以找寻一个对抗疾病的方法,避免儿童死亡,那么我们将感谢上帝。
They should do everything to eradicate this disease. They should help us. We have hope and we are happy with how far the project has gone.
他们应该尽一切可能消灭这种疾病,他们应该帮助我们,我们充满希望,我们对项目的进展感到高兴。
More than half of the world's population is at risk of contracting the disease, but it's a unique problem in Africa.
全球超一半人口都存在患病风险,但在非洲却是一个特别的问题。
And that's where University of Maryland researchers are testing a fungus that kills mosquitos on contact.
马里兰大学研究人员正在测试一种真菌,它能够在接触苍蝇后消灭它们。
We took a gene from a spider and we put that spider gene which encodes an insect-selective toxin,
我们从蜘蛛中提取基因,这种基因编码了一种昆虫选择性毒素,
we put that gene into the fungus, under the control of a promoter and the promoter is the on-off switch of a gene,
我们将基因放入真菌中,并在启动子的控制之下,这种启动子是基因的通断开关。
so under the control of this promoter which only turns on in insect blood.
所以在启动子的控制下,它只有在昆虫血液中才会打开。
The fungus works quickly and effectively on malaria carrying mosquitos the moment it comes in contact with the insects.
这种真菌一旦接触昆虫,它就会迅速且高效地作用在携带苍蝇的疟疾上。
Out of the box, if they land anywhere on the outside of a mosquito,
在盒子外面,不管在哪只要是在苍蝇上面,
they'll recognize that they're on a mosquito and they'll burrow their way into the mosquito.
它们会知道这是苍蝇,然后钻进苍蝇中。
In tests, once the fungus was introduced into a mosquito population the mosquitos were gone in a month.
在测试中,一旦真菌进入苍蝇中,苍蝇会在一个月内消失。
But success in the lab doesn't mean success in the field,
但实验室里成功不代表在室外成功,
so the team is testing their mosquito-killing fungus in Burkina Faso with the help of researchers there.
所以该团队在当地研究员的帮助下,他们正在布基纳法索测试他们的真菌。
Using raw meat the team attracts mosquitos into these test rooms.
通过生肉该团队吸引苍蝇进入实验室。
Once inside they rest on a black cloth that has been treated with the fungus. The results are swift.
一旦进入,它们会落在有真菌的黑布上,结果很快就出来了。
Well basically within two generations we've killed 99 percent of the mosquitoes. So it caused the mosquito population to collapse.
基本上在两代苍蝇内,我们杀死了99%的苍蝇,让苍蝇数量下降。
The researchers say that the dramatic results of their test and using their treatment along with insecticides
研究人员称测试的显著结果,以及通过使用杀虫剂,
could have a big impact on fighting malaria, and also could be adapted to fight other diseases like Zika or Dengue.
这对抗击疟疾来说有很大影响,也可以适用于消灭像寨卡病毒或登革热。