Lifelines

Blood donors and stinky socks

Meet the scientists at ‘Mosquito city’ who are using unusual and innovative methods to tackle malaria.

Would you be willing to let thousands of mosquitoes take a blood-meal from your arm in the name of science?

At the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania there are volunteers who do just that.

Research scientist Fredros Okumu shows Al Jazeera’s Lifelines: The Quest for Global Health around ‘Mosquito City’, a research facility in Tanzania’s Kilombero Valley that studies how mosquitos have evolved to evade traditional precautions against malaria like bed nets.

From the feeding tents where mosquitoes are bred to the testing station where stinky socks are being used to trick mosquitoes into traps, these health heroes are using innovative and unusual techniques to advance their battle against malaria. 

See more of Okumu and his team in the Lifelines epsiode ‘The End Game’.