04 Nov2014
To beat malaria and dengue, vaccinate the mosquitoes
Mosquitoes fed a bacterium called Csp_P are less likely to transmit malaria and dengue to humans. | JAMES GATHANY/CDC
If there’s one thing the malaria parasite wants, it’s to get inside the guts of a mosquito. Once there, it releases hundreds of wormlike cells that enter the human body through a bloodsucking bite. Now, scientists have found a way to make mosquitoes much less hospitable to this pathogen, as well as the one that causes dengue: stacking the insect’s gut with killer microbes that wipe out the invaders before they have a chance to cause disease.
