因为蚊帐，蚊子改变了它们的咬人习惯

来源：科研圈

每年感染疟疾的人数超过2亿；因此死亡的人数大约为50万，大部分在非洲，其中很多是儿童。而这些令人震惊的数字已经是情况改善后的结果，自2000年以来，死于疟疾的人数已经减少了一半。在许多地方，一种非常简单的工具主导了这场斗争：经过温和杀虫剂处理的蚊帐，它们可以防止人们在睡觉时被蚊子叮咬。

人和蚊子都是疟疾传播周期中的棋子。如果被感染的人被蚊子叮咬，蚊子就会从他的血液中感染寄生虫，然后传给下一个被叮咬的人。蚊帐有助于让睡着不动的人躲避蚊子的轻易袭击。但现在，一些蚊子似乎放弃了夜间作战。

“在非洲，传染疟疾的蚊子正在改变它们的叮咬行为。”宾夕法尼亚州立大学（Penn State University）传染病动力学中心的昆虫学家徐恩浩（音，Eunho Suh）说道。

“它们通常在晚上咬人，但由于蚊帐的大量使用，这些蚊子开始在傍晚或……[查看全文和论文链接]

Malaria Mosquitoes Are Biting before Bed-Net Time

More than 200 million people get malaria each year. And about half a million die—mostly in Africa, many of them children. And those staggering numbers are an improvement. Malaria deaths have been cut in half since 2000. In many places, a remarkably simple tool has led the fight: bed nets treated with a mild insecticide that stop mosquitoes from biting people in their sleep.

Both people and mosquitoes are pawns in the malaria transmission cycle. If an infected person gets bitten by a mosquito, the parasite gets picked up along within the blood meal. That mosquito can then transfer the parasite to the next person it bites. Bed nets help stop mosquitoes from easy attacks on motionless sleepers. But now some mosquitoes seem to be giving up the night shift.

“Malaria mosquitos in Africa tend to shift their biting behavior.”

Entomologist Eunho Suh from Penn State University’s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.

“Normally they tend to bite people during the night, but because of extensive use of bed nets, these mosquitoes started biting in the early evening or...[full transcript]