Can tiny bacteria help stop the spread of disease?

Mosquitoes kill an estimated 700 000 people a year by transmitting viruses that cause diseases like chikungunya, dengue and Zika. With the help of WHO, researchers have discovered that mosquitoes artificially infected with a bacterium called Wolbachia do not transmit these diseases as easily. Wolbachia bacteria exist naturally, and it may be possible to create populations of mosquitoes that cannot transmit deadly viruses by breeding mosquitoes infected with the bacteria.
Source: WHO Feature Stories - Category: Global & Universal Tags: zika [subject] Source Type: news