UK-based scientists have developed a new way to fight off the dengue virus in Brazil by releasing genetically modified male mosquitoes that will kill their offspring.

The biotech firm Oxitec has created an antidote that they have inserted into male mosquitoes. The procedure is considered safe to humans since only female mosquitoes bite, and spread the virus.

Like Us on Facebook

Male mosquitoes that carry the antidote will be released and allowed to mate with female ones. The offspring will then be born with the same gene, which will kill them before they reach maturity.

According to the company's website, if the Oxitec Control Programme is applied to a certain area, "the mosquitoes in the area could be dramatically reduced or eliminated."

In a recent test, researcher Sofia Bastos Pinto said that a local population of dengue mosquitoes was reduced by 96 percent. If the project proves successful, scientists could then focus on other diseases like malaria.

Pinto's team is currently awaiting government approval to begin the process on a larger scale.

As of July 2014, a Public Radio International report stated that the program had been working in the northeastern part of Brazil.

Brazil is known to have the highest incidence of dengue fever. Just last year, it reported 1.4 million cases of the mosquito-borne virus.

The disease has infected 50 million people worldwide, and kills millions.

The total number of deaths induced by mosquitoes outnumbers all deaths by other animals combined.

There is no known cure or vaccine for dengue fever.

The dengue virus is carried by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, a species that is common in urban settings.

The time of day that such mosquitoes bite, as well as the fact that they are immune to insecticides, makes them hard to control.

While mosquitoes have long been nuisances to humanity and that the extermination of the species would be beneficial to people, scientist are still grappling if the extinction of mosquitoes would have any ecological effects.

TagsOxitec, Sofia Bastos Pinto, disease control, dengue