Forget DEET: Mutant Mosquitoes Offer “New Hope” to Malarial Regions

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


A team of US researchers has announced that it’s developed a genetically modified malaria-resistant mosquito.

I know, everybody’s mad at GMOs, but malaria kills up to 2.7 million people per year, most of them kids. And why spend a couple of bucks donating insecticide-treated mosquito nets to broke African babies when you can build a transnational army of super-bugs (which, as a creepy bonus, were also injected with a protein that causes their eyes to glow fluorescent green) to eradicate a disease?

The new creations are so effective because they are heartier than regular mosquitoes, which means they could take over the mosquito world, which means malaria could be wiped out. Despite the fact that nothing good ever happens when alien species are introduced into an ecosystem, researchers are hopeful that the extra-egg-laying, harder-to-kill mutants will be ready to be released into the wild in a decade or two.

 

They want to control the story. Our readers don’t let them.

Powerful forces are working to control the narrative, rewrite history, and keep you in the dark. That’s why the Mother Jones newsroom is fiercely independent, not backed by billionaires or bending to political whims.

But we can’t do this work without you.

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by our readers. Each donation helps strengthen our work, so we can continue to investigate and publish, no matter what an authoritarian-minded administration wants the media to say.

Stand with us. Make a gift today.

They want to control the story. Our readers don’t let them.

Powerful forces are working to control the narrative, rewrite history, and keep you in the dark. That’s why the Mother Jones newsroom is fiercely independent, not backed by billionaires or bending to political whims.

But we can’t do this work without you.

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by our readers. Each donation helps strengthen our work, so we can continue to investigate and publish, no matter what an authoritarian-minded administration wants the media to say.

Stand with us. Make a gift today.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate