A study finds that heating crystals of deltamethrin--an insecticide commonly used to kill malaria vectors but that is facing increasing resistance in Anopheles mosquito populations--to temperatures around 110-120 °C before cooling yields a different crystal structure that allows deltamethrin to kill mosquitoes 12 times faster than the original structure and would require less product in indoor spraying, potentially suppressing malaria transmission, even in areas with high insecticide resistance.
Article #20-13390: "A deltamethrin crystal polymorph for more effective malaria control," by Jingxiang Yang et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Bart Kahr, New York University, NY; tel: 212-992-9579; e-mail: bart.kahr@nyu.edu
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences