Malaria kills over 1 million people every year. Genomic mapping of malaria parasite and mosquito raise hope for a vaccine as well as more effective drugs

: Every year, malaria kills between 1 and 2 million people. Another half billion get infected but survive. Most cases of malaria are found in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of drug and insecticide resistance and social and environmental changes the problems are still increasing. There is therefore a desperate need for vaccines and new drugs and insecticides. Several recently published research discoveries may help to speed up the development of new tools to fight malaria. Two years ago the draft human genome sequence was released. Now the sequencing of the genomes for the most common malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and the vector mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, have been completed. For the first time researchers have the genomic maps of all three organisms in an infectious disease available.