Microbe that could control malaria found in Kenya

It's a disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people around the world every year.

A team of scientists discovered that this microbe called Microsporidia can prevent mosquitoes from being infected with plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria.

Olivia Chan reports.

Diana Aluoch is mourning the death of her 11-month-old daughter Mary Aumu.

The baby died in Kenya's Kisumu province in March, one of the hundreds of thousands of people each year killed by malaria.

But less than 200 miles away in the capital Nairobi, a team of scientists have discovered what they think could be a vital tool against the mosquito-borne disease.

It's a microbe called Microsporidia that can stop mosquitoes being infected with the parasite that causes malaria.

Jeremy Herren, of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi and Lake Victoria: "We found it transmits from mother mosquito to their offspring, so once the mosquito population is infected the next generation of mosquitoes coming through will also be infected." There is increasing evidence that resistance is growing to commonly used anti-malarial drugs.

And in places like Kisumu, many families cannot afford bed nets or insecticide, meaning children - who are often the victims of malaria - can get infected several times a month.

"In a month I go to the hospital maybe three times.

Sometimes with all of the kids.

When one of them gets healed, then the other gets sick." There are many breeding sites in this region of Kenya, and it's here where the science team aims to release mosquitoes infected with the microbe into the wild.

"The next stage in terms of getting it out there is to better understand its transmission biology.

But so far it looks like it has the capacity to spread through populations.

If we can find a way to help it get a foothold, get a head start, it might be possible to get populations up to a level where mosquitoes no longer pose any risk to us." And that could mean fewer mothers like Diana living with the heartache of a lost child.