Aedes aegyptiWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, JAMES GATHANY
A bacterium called Wolbachia can stop the transmission of the dengue virus in mosquitoes and invade wild populations of the disease-carrying insects, according to two studies publishing today (August 24) in Nature. The new approach could be used to reduce exposure for the 2.5 billion people who live in endemic regions, and could potentially be applied to other mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever.
“This is a big step and it is very exciting,” said Zhiyong Xi, a medical entomologist at Michigan State University who was not involved in the study. While disease-resistant mosquitoes have been created in the lab previously, this is the first time they have taken root in the field, he said.
Several years ago, researchers found that infecting lab ...
