Deadly Diseases and Creepy Crawlies

Malaria control has had great success in Africa. Bednets and spraying insecticides indoors has helped decrease malaria cases by one third in the last two decades. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are adapting their behaviour to avoid control methods. Now, malaria transmitting mosquitoes often bite outdoors earlier in the day when people are not protected by bednets. In 2020 there were still an estimated 241 million malaria cases with 627.000 malaria deaths worldwide. We are now in a race to adapt our surveillance and control methods to keep up with the ever-changing mosquito.

Two years ago, we all witnessed the devastating consequences of a new viral disease, COVID-19, spreading around the world. Scientists quickly started to research ways to fight it and, as one of them, Aitor applied their skills to look closely at sugars the virus uses to modify its infamous Spike proteins. In this talk, Aitor will walk you through the fascinating journey that took them to discover the importance of sugars for COVID-19 and how they envisage these can be exploited to treat, not only COVID-19, but also future viruses with pandemic potential.

Behind Covid-19, tuberculosis is the second deadliest infectious disease across the world with more than 4100 TB-related deaths every day. But why is this disease still here centuries on and having such a devastating impact? Progress in ending this disease was being made, albeit slowly, and with political commitment, but this progress has been set back by more than a decade by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a pint, Bertie and Kerry will discuss, gender inequitable access to TB care and prevention – reasons why and research being undertaken to provide some solutions.