Posted by 
Researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine LSTM have shown potential impact of a completely new type of antimalarial drug that kills mosquitoes against the existing drugs that kill the parasite, to reduce the spread of malaria.The team, working with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other colleagues across the globe.
Adding high doses of ivermectin- an endectocide class of drug to the antimalarial dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) had a major and prolonged effect on mosquito mortality. This novel type of intervention which could be added to community-wide campaigns with antimalarial drugs, such as mass drug administration and seasonal malaria chemoprevention, to kill both mosquitoes and parasites.
Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug and in lower doses is widely used in the treatment of other tropical diseases, the team evaluated doses that were predicted to give drug levels that were 2 times and 4 times higher than the standard dose. Combining it with the malaria drug DP used in mass drug administration in many malaria endemic countries.
They discovered that three-day courses of ivermectin 300 and 600 mcg/kg/day were safe and routinely killed mosquitoes feeding on the blood of the treated individuals for at least 28 days post-treatment. These results suggest that ivermectin has the potential to become a novel tool for killing malaria.
haleplushearty.org