From Mosquito to Vaccine: A Weekly Science Quiz Takes on Malaria Prevention
The Science Quiz is a weekly feature on the daily Science page of the epaper, published every day except for Saturdays. The quiz covers a range of topics related to science and health, including malaria transmission and prevention. One of the questions in the quiz asks about the mosquito that transmits malaria, which was discovered by a British doctor in 1897. Another question focuses on the country that contributes to over half of the malaria cases in the World Health Organisation’s Southeast Asia region.
The quiz also touches upon factors that can accelerate malaria transmission, such as global warming and insecticide resistance. It asks about the most commonly used antimalarial drug to which mosquitoes have developed resistance, and highlights a country that made history in 2024 by launching the world’s first malaria vaccine as part of its immunization program. Additionally, it features information about another manufacturer that has established production capacity for a second malaria vaccine called R21/Matrix M.
For the visual question, readers are asked to identify a chemist who identified the insecticidal properties of DDT in 1939 and received a Nobel Prize for his work. The answers to these questions include Anopheles stephensi and Ronald Ross for the mosquito and doctor respectively; India for the country contributing to malaria cases; Chloroquine for
