Journal Entry 18

I've been reading the article from the malERA on vector control. The three main challenges facing effective control of anopheles vectors are (1)the preservation and improvement of existing insecticide based interventions (2)the development of interventions targeting species not currently affected by insecticides (3)the development of novel approaches that reduce the high vectorial capacities of sub-Saharan Africa. The questions this article led me to were these:

1. How can insecticides be used to target reproductive habitat for mosquitoes?
2. What ecological factors effect whether an area is more likely to have high vector populations?
3. Would it have a negative impact on Ghanaian ecology if mosquitoes were eliminated? How much would that cost?

I can see that there is not a ton of continuity in my learning journal entries. Each one seems to be separate from the others and I often don't address the questions that I asked in the previous entry. I think the reason for this is that my research is still quite broad. I find new material addressing questions that I had never thought of before quite frequently. And I find that the questions I ask are not always pertinent or easily answered so spending my research time answering these could take a significant amount of time and not be very helpful. I think at this point I am still doing a lot of exploratory research and want the information I find to dictate my research path rather than my questions.

Keywords: insecticides, malaria eradication research agenda, ecology