Lord of the sandflies: U of C lab raising insects to research deadly parasite
CALGARY — A state-of-the-art lab has opened at the University of Calgary to house tiny, biting insects responsible for spreading a disease that kills up to 30,000 people every year.
Sandflies, which are smaller than mosquitoes, live only for a month, but infect a million people each year with the parasite Leishmania, which causes a chronic disease called leishmaniasis.
There is no vaccine. Those who don’t die often end up with lifelong disfiguring scars. Treatment, which involves intravenous medications, can be painful and expensive.
At the insectary at the university’s Cumming School of Medicine, a colony of sandflies is being raised to understand more about how the disease is transmitted and the immune system’s response.