Resident blogger Tim Little asked: Does the jewel of mosquitos come with a price? in his blog referring to the Sabethes mosquito. This shimmering violet insect can hide deadly traits behind its beautiful façade, being responsible for spreading severe viral diseases such as yellow fever.  Unlike most mosquitoes, this one has some beautiful brush like appendages (they look a little like mascara brushes in my opinion).

Kennedy Zambere, a guest blogger, wrote in 2022 that malaria elimination is possible with innovative tools. The tools could potentially be at the molecular level utilising CRISPR-Cas to manipulate mosquito genomes and the use of biological adversaries such as Wolbachia. He ends with the wish: “I long for the day when we will celebrate world malaria history day on 25^th April”

You can listen to Kennedy discuss this further in his video:

 Long-time Bugbitten Editor, Anouk Gouvras, asks: What is the economic impact of schistosomiasis? A One Health question. Schistosomiasis is a debilitating Neglected Tropical Disease that affects over 200 million people each year AND is a veterinary disease severely impacting livestock. Eliminating this disease in  Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Zimbabwe could boost their national GDPs by 5.1 billion USD.

Another of our resident blog Editors, Daniel Parsons wrote about a successful citizen science campaign looking into the distribution of the ornate dog tick in the Czech Republic. The tick, a vector for the potentially fatal canine babesiosis, was shown to be endemic in the country. It also exhibited a bimodal seasonal distribution pattern, peaking in early spring and early autumn/ fall.

Professor Hilary Hurd, Editorial Coordinator for BugBitten these past 11 years, never fails to engage our readers through her blogs. Positive news was much needed at the time, and her blog on Eye disease eliminated from The Gambia highlights the journey towards Trachoma (caused  by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis) elimination in The Gambia. Trachoma is endemic in 44 countries and has caused vision impairment or blindness in 1.9 million people, so its elimination is indeed fantastic news.

2022 was perhaps a time when we were particularly eager and hopeful for news that would help fight other diseases. In the years since these blogs were published, we have seen much progress in finding innovative solutions to fight diseases such as malaria. And I am hopeful, like Kennedy Zambere, that we would soon be able to call these diseases historical.