Maureen Coetzee

Maureen Coetzee is a medical entomologist, specialising in African malaria vector mosquitoes for over 40 years. She is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Wits Research Institute for Malaria, School of Pathology at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. Quotes I was lucky enough to be mentored by Dr. Botha de Meillon, the doyen of African Anopheles mosquitoes and author of several books on the topic, who encouraged me to embark on post-graduate studies at Wits University. Throughout my career, my research has focussed on the mosquitoes that transmit malaria parasites and how to control them. I have studied their morphology, chromosomes, and isoenzymes, cross-mated them, and bred them in huge numbers in the laboratory. The project I was involved in, in northern South Africa, looked at the effectiveness of reactive or targeted IRS (responding only when there was a malaria case) versus proactive IRS (the standard IRS blanket spraying program carried out at the beginning of the season) and how much each cost per annum. Entomology is quite often neglected but is critically important if real control or elimination is to be achieved. Capacity building in entomology would also be a crucial aspect that could be addressed by the savings made in targeted IRS. Maureen Coetzee on finding new approaches to fight malaria External links Category:Living people Category:Women academics from South Africa Category:Women scientists from South Africa Category:Educators from South Africa Category:Entomologists