Researchers have found a new way to halt the spread of diseases carried by mosquitoes, such as dengue and yellow fever.
This new technique, which involves infecting mosquitoes with the bacteria Wolbachia, stops the insect from spreading the disease to humans. Used alongside an insecticide resistance gene, the insects can then also pass on the disease-blocking bacteria to other mosquitoes faster, potentially halting the disease altogether.
These results could hold the key to a cheap and sustainable approach to the control of diseases such as Dengue, which kills round 40,000 people each year and has no vaccines or specific treatments available.
Read more at The University of Melbourne