Abstract
It was in Freetown, Sierra Leone, that the malaria mosquito Anopheles coastalis, now known as Anopheles gambiae, was first discovered as the vector of malaria, in 1899. That discovery led to a pioneering vector research in Sierra Leone and neighbouring Liberia, where mosquito species were extensively characterized. Unfortunately, the decade long civil conflicts of the 1990s, in both countries, resulted in a stagnation of the once vibrant research on disease vectors. This paper attempts to fill in some of the gaps on what is now known of the distribution of the sibling species of the An. gambiae complex, and especially the An. coluzzii and An. gambiae s.s, formerly known as the An. gambiae molecular M and S forms respectively, in the cities of Freetown and Monrovia.
Publication types
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Historical Article
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Africa, Western / epidemiology
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Animals
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Anopheles / classification
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Anopheles / physiology*
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Genes, Insect
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Geography
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History, 19th Century
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Humans
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Insect Vectors / classification
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Insect Vectors / physiology*
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Insecticide Resistance / genetics
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Malaria / epidemiology
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Malaria / history
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Malaria / transmission*
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Mutation
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Population Dynamics
Grants and funding
This study was supported by the Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, through funding from DFID and GSK. The funders however played no role in the publication of this manuscript. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript