News

March 1, 2007
Meeting a Killer Face to Face

Greg Lanzaro searching for mosquitoes in a home in Mali. (Photo by Anthony Cornel)

DAVIS, CALIF.--Medical entomologist Gregory Lanzaro, director of the statewide University of California Mosquito Research Program and the UC Davis Center for Vectorborne Diseases, will discuss malaria at the third annual United Nations Association Traveling Film Festival on Sunday night, March 18 in Davis.

The film festival, “Sparks of Humanity,” is set from 5 to 10:30 p.m. in the Varsity Theatre, 616 Second St., downtown Davis.

Lanzaro will speak following the 7 p.m. presentation of the film, “Malaria: No. 1 Killer,” produced in Ethiopia and Kenya by IRIN Films.

The festival will feature seven documentary films, keying in on justice and dignity issues throughout the world.

Tickets are $10 and can be pre-purchased at the International House on campus and at three Davis locations: City Hall, Avid Reader Bookstore, and the Varsity Theatre.

The film schedule includes

• 5:15 p.m.: “The Blood of Yingzhou District,” filmed in China (2007 Oscar winner)
• 6 p.m. : “True Whispers,” covering the World War II Navajo code talkers in the United States
• 7 p.m.: “Malaria: No. 1 Killer,” depicting villages in Ethiopia decimated by malaria
• 7:30 p.m.: “The Tsunami Generation,” the untold story of the Aceh province in  Indonesia in the wake of the tsunami disaster, which killed 200,000 people and left half a million homeless
• 8:30 p.m.: “Rights on the Line: Vigilantes on the Border,”  the militarization and vigilante action on the Mexican and U. S. border
• 9 p.m.: “Between Two Stones: Nepal’s Decade of Conflict,” the civil war in Nepal
• 9:30 p.m.: “Rosita,” about a young girl in Nicaragua who went from innocent victim (rape) to unwitting victor

Lanzaro, who has conducted field work in Africa for more than 15 years, said that malaria infects some 350 to 500 million people a year, killing between 1 million and 2.5 million. Ninety-percent of the global incidence of malaria occurs in Africa; a child dies every 30 seconds in Africa.

To battle malaria in Africa, Lanzaro formed the UC Malaria Research and Control Group in February 2006. The group, a branch of the UC Mosquito Research Program, includes 21 scientists from five UC campuses partnering with the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California.

“We’re firmly committed to defeating the most formidable and challenging mosquito-borne disease," Lanzaro said.

The UC Mosquito Research Program is a statewide program of the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Web sites:
United Nations Traveling Film Festival
UC Malaria Research and Control Group
Center for Vectorborne Diseases

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Contact:
Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications
UC Mosquito Research Program
Department of Entomology
396 Briggs Hall
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616
Phone: (530) 754-6894
E-mail: kegarvey@ucdavis.edu