New Delhi: Health experts seem to have figured out the reason why mosquitoes are attracted more towards people with malaria.
"The malaria parasite produces a molecule, HMBPP, which stimulates the human red blood cells to release more carbon dioxide and volatile compounds with an irresistible smell to malaria mosquitoes," explained one of the researchers, Ingrid Faye from Stockholm University in Sweden.
The researchers believe that the findings, published in the journal Science, can lead to new ways to fight malaria without using poisonous chemicals.
Most malaria mosquitoes were attracted by HMBPP-blood, even at very low concentrations, the study showed.
The mosquitoes also drink more blood from malaria patients and thus they acquire a more severe malaria infection -- that is higher numbers of parasites are produced.
This indicates that the extra nutrients from the larger meal of blood are used to produce more parasites.
Neither humans nor mosquitoes use HMBPP themselves, but the parasite needs the substance to be able to grow.
(With IANS inputs)
