By Jeremy Wilks
Bart Knols has
declared war on mosquitoes, armed with nothing more than plastic tubes
and fine netting, and steely determination. The Dutchman and his
colleagues from In2Care, a small startup company he founded in 2011, are on a mission to eradicate the disease, step by step, in some of the worst affected areas of Africa.
Speaking to Euronews Explorers,
his incredible drive in taking on this seemingly unbeatable disease is
simply expressed: “I’ve been in this field for 22 years, I’ve had
malaria nine times myself, I almost lost my wife to it, and I’ve seen
too many children die in small clinics in the remotest corners of Africa
– what more motivation do you want?”
Malaria is a very common and deadly parasitic disease transmitted by
mosquitoes, killing an estimated 600,000 people each year, many of them
children under five years of age, the vast majority in sub-Saharan
Africa. That’s one death every minute. Yet many believe it can be
beaten. Bill Gates and Pedro Alonso, Director of the Global Malaria
Programme of the World Health
Organization recently announced that malaria could be eradicated from
the face of the planet by 2030, if the right tools are in place.
The way Bart has gone about tackling malaria is different and
innovative. Thanks to an EU research grant in 2012, he brought together a
diverse team of experts to try to find new ways to deal with
malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
“I got people involved who had no idea about malaria but were total
experts in other field like chemistry or physics, or had a business
background, and let them have a completely novel look at the system,” he
explains.
Full article available here: Bart Knols
Source: Euronews
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