How drones are helping to fight malaria in urban Tanzania

Baby Dilan lies curled against his grandmother’s chest, his curious brown eyes watching closely as she tells her story. Judith Lomayani Laizer has cared for the seven-month-old since his mum — her daughter Josephine — died in May aged just 25. The Daily Express heard their heartbreaking tale in Tanzania, where scientists are working tirelessly to eliminate the disease that killed Josephine — malaria.

The young mum was diagnosed with malaria and a urinary tract infection at hospital after developing a headache and chills. Despite receiving treatment, she died a week and a half later. Judith, 42, remembers her daughter resting at home and hoping her symptoms would pass.

She says: “At some point it became too much for her body. She became very weak, she wasn’t even able to get out of bed. We rushed her to the hospital but before the doctors could even do any more tests, she passed away.”

Malaria claims almost 600,000 lives every year including 25,000 in Tanzania. In the neighbourhood of Keko, where Judith and Dilan live, the parasitic disease poses a constant threat. Judith describes it as “something we get time and again”.

Not long after losing Josephine, Dilan started vomiting in the middle of the night. “We thought maybe he just needed to rest,” Judith says. "But in the morning, he had a fever. We were worried so that evening we took him to the hospital. The doctors said he had malaria and a blood infection.”

As the sickness ravaged his tiny body, Dilan was given medication and an intravenous drip. Judith fed him meals to try and build up his strength, which doctors feared had diminished after losing his mum and being unable to breastfeed.

Dilan is a quiet infant, usually happy and calm “as long as he gets his milk in the morning”, Judith says. But watching him lie still in the hospital bed, she was worried. “He usually has a good appetite but he wasn’t eating. Everything he ate, he would vomit up. He was very weak and not as cheerful as usual.”

Thankfully Dilan made a full recovery and Judith, who sends second-hand clothing for a living, hopes he may grow up to be a doctor. The family sleeps under mosquito nets and burns incense coils to repel mosquitoes. Sitting in the shade of her porch, Judith adds: “Worrying about malaria doesn’t really help.

“What helps is trying to pay attention to your child, and if they’re showing symptoms rush them to the hospital. The only thing we do worry about is whether we’re going to have the money to afford the care they need.”

Stories like this provide strong motivation for malaria researchers. Global progress against the disease is thought to have prevented around 2.2 billion cases and 12.7 million deaths since 2000.

More countries are moving towards elimination — Suriname and Timor-Leste recently joined the list of 47 countries and one territory certified as malaria-free by the World Health Organisation, meaning they have achieved at least three consecutive years of zero indigenous cases.

But scientists fear that major cuts to research funding from countries including the US could reverse decades of advances.

On a cricket pitch near Dar Es Salaam University, we meet vector biologist Dr Yeromin Mlacha and geospatial analyst Leka Tingitana, of Tanzania Flying Labs. Their project harnesses the latest drone technology and artificial intelligence to improve risk assessments for mosquito-borne diseases.

As we shield our eyes against the mid-morning sun, pilot Mr Tingitana programmes the fixed-wing drone and holds it at an angle before launching it into the sky. It soars above us, climbing so high it could be mistaken for a distant bird of prey.

Mr Tingitana, who describes Tanzania as the “drone capital of Africa”, says the survey-grade mapping drone can tolerate high winds and cover large areas. He adds: “I could fly this drone for about an hour, whereas most of the rotary wing aircraft, the quad-copters and so on, would fly less, although they are rapidly catching up.”

It is an expensive piece of kit — the drone’s sensor alone costs around £9,000. But this technology makes it perfect for scoping out areas at risk of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

Dr Mlacha and his team work with local health facilities to trace patients who have been infected back to their homes, where their housing environment and habits can be studied and used to train the AI.

He explains: “We have a team on the ground verifying the presence of positive habitats for anopheles mosquitoes, as well as various mosquitoes. Then, using the drone’s image, we digitise everything and train the model to predict the same features in images captured where we don’t sample, to tell us if the risk is higher or lower.”

Tanzania is experiencing rapid urbanisation. Factors that increase the risk of malaria spreading include water tanks and buckets that can provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The project has already identified a previously unknown hazard — old tyres. Dr Mlacha says: “During the pilot, we saw a lot of water tanks on top of houses, as well as tyres put on top of roofs like an anchor to prevent the roof being taken out by the wind.

“When it rains, the tyre can hold water for two to three weeks. That allows the mosquitoes to breed. This was fascinating information for us." The team hopes their model could be widely used to assess urban risk factors, so locals can be advised on how to reduce their chance of infection.

The mapping project is funded by Danish pharmaceutical company NovoNordisk. But other projects Dr Mlacha was working on have experienced devastating funding cuts. He and colleagues had collected almost two years of data for a five-year project to surveill a particular mosquito strain when Donald Trump’s closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) meant the work was halted.

Dr Mlacha said: “USAID was supporting a lot of programmes within Africa. If the UK also pulls out, a lot will happen. A lot of deaths — we will probably go back to the transmission we had 10 years ago. We would be starting all over again.”

Despite these challenges, father-of-three Dr Mlacha believes that malaria will be eradicated in his lifetime. He adds: “There are a lot of things we’re doing in terms of innovations and the advancement of technology.

“I believe that within the next generation, malaria will be eradicated. And if not eradicated, controlled to the level where people are not dying because malaria is no longer a big problem like it is now.”

The UK government has invested £527m in malaria research and development since 2007, according to charity Malaria No More UK. It wants to see continued support for bodies such as Gavi and The Global Fund which help supply malaria defences and treatments.

The Global Fund — a worldwide partnership against HIV, TB and malaria — is entering its eighth replenishment cycle for 2026-28. Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty recently told the House of Commons the UK was proud to be co-hosting this year's replenishment event with South Africa and said allocations will be decided in the coming months.