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Published online 3 October 2002 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news021001-8
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Mosquitoes minus malaria
If wild populations of the mosquito that transmits malaria were replaced with insects rendered harmless by genetic engineering, the disease could finally be defeated. But that remains a big 'if', as Tom Clarke finds out.
For millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa, the whine of Anopheles gambiae is the music of death. This mosquito spreads the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, but if it could be genetically altered to block the cycle of transmission, it would hold no fear.
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