GM mosquitoes to fight dengue

Malaysia's Health Minister on Sunday said the country would carry out a landmark field trial by releasing genetically modified mosquitoes designed to combat dengue fever by the end of the year.

Malaysia's death rate from dengue fever has spiralled 53 per cent this year and the public is being urged to take action to eradicate the Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes — the females of which spread dengue — from homes and workplaces.

In the first experiment of its kind in Asia, 2,000-3,000 male Aedes mosquitoes are to be released in two Malaysian states.

The insects in the study have been engineered so that their offspring quickly die, curbing the growth of the population in a technique researchers hope could eventually eradicate the dengue mosquito altogether. However, environmentalists are concerned that the GM mosquito could fail to prevent dengue and could also have unintended consequences. Critics have said the larvae will only die if their environment is free of tetracycline, an antibiotic commonly used for medical and veterinary purposes.