SAN DIEGO -- University of California San Diego researchers are working with scientists deep in the tropics of Peru to battle malaria, 10News reported.

"Many people think that malaria is gone, gone from the world, gone from the United States, and that's not true," UCSD researcher Dr. Joseph Vinetz said.

Humans can get malaria from the bite of a malaria-infected mosquito. A malaria parasite goes into the blood and it multiplies in the body.

"These are the individual parasites where they attach to a new red cell through the very tip of the parasite," Vinetz said.

Vinetz and a team of researchers infect mosquitoes with the malaria parasite to look at ways to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.

"We're hoping that we will come up with the basic knowledge of vaccine and drug cures to improve the public health," Vinetz said.

They created a tropical environment inside a UCSD lab to raise mosquitoes.

"It's about 78 degrees Fahrenheit and about 80 to 90 percent humidity," Vinetz said.

The lab allows the international team of scientists to be able to pinpoint a better vaccine for malaria.

Vinetz said the malaria-carrying mosquitoes may be from the tropics, but they have a familiar link to San Diego.

"These are special mosquitoes that people think are only found the in tropics, but, in fact we have them in California," he said.

Fifteen years ago, mosquitoes transmitted the insidious disease to humans in San Diego County.

Vinetz said the big push for a better malaria vaccine is necessary because of the current treatment is becoming resistant to the malaria bug.