Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

The Malaria Research Institute at John Hopkins University has created genetically modified mosquitoes which cannot pass on malaria. The plan would be to release these mossies into the wild where they would drive out the local malaria carrying mosquitoes and eventually eradicate the disease.

The strategy is likely to be contentious because it would require the unprecedented release of tens of thousands of GM organisms into the wild. But it has raised hopes among scientists, some of whom believe it may be powerful enough to bring under control a disease that strikes 300 million people a year and causes more than a million deaths.

A worthy cause. But so was the release of cane toads into Queensland to combat the cane beetle, I just hope this will be more successful if it happens, but it worries me greatly.