 "netically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are pictured at Oxitec factory in Piracicaba, Brazil")
One of the more interesting ways to combat mosquito-borne diseases is by infecting the mosquitoes with a parasite. The Aedes aegypti mosquito hosts the viruses responsible for dengue, zika, yellow fever and chikungunya. Female mosquitoes bite infected humans and pick up those viruses, which flourish within the mosquitoes’ cells. These diseases are passed on when the infected mosquito bites somebody else.
Dengue causes 50-100 million infections every year while zika epidemics in the Latin America have had terrible effects on new-born babies. Yellow fever affects Brazil and Africa and chikungunya has caused epidemics across continents.
Researchers have discovered that a common bacteria,
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