Scientists prove new technology to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes

Scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Washington, Seattle, have taken an important step towards developing control measures for mosquitoes that transmit malaria. Scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Washington , Seattle, have taken an important step towards developing control measures for mosquitoes that transmit malaria. In today's study researchers have demonstrated how some genetic changes can be introduced into large laboratory mosquito populations over the span of a few generations by just a small number of modified mosquitoes. In the future this technological breakthrough could help to introduce a genetic change into a mosquito population and prevent it from transmitting the deadly malaria parasite, Plasmodium , to humans. Malaria is a debilitating disease that affects more than 300 million people every year, and kills nearly 800,000 annually. In Africa, a child dies of malaria about every 45 seconds. Public health experts have called for malaria eradication, but there is a recognised need for better and lower cost tools to achieve the eradication goal.