With the arrival of a new species of mosquito in Kenya, concerns are growing about an increase in malaria. During a routine sampling in the Marsabit region in the north of the country, experts from Kenya's Kemri Research Institute discovered mosquitoes of the species Anopheles stephensi, which is originally native to South Asia, according to a post on Kenya's Capital FM station that Kemri shared on Twitter on Monday. These mosquitoes are resistant to insecticides used in Africa, it said.

According to hospital data from Marsabit, malaria cases there have already increased, although it is not actually the usual malaria season, reported the British broadcaster BBC. According to Kemri, the local mosquitoes are not very active in the dry season, while the immigrant mosquitoes can adapt well to the climatic conditions and the environment.

The fear is that malaria will become a year-round problem, spreading more into urban areas and undoing successes in the fight against the parasitic disease. In the past decade, the vectors, which originate in Asia, have already spread to parts of Africa. They have been reported from the Horn of Africa as well as Sudan and Nigeria.

Image by Oberholster Venita