Infecting mosquitoes with a bacteria might – might – stop Zika virus

A report from Quarz says:

Mosquitoes infected with a bacteria Wolbachia are less likely to carry the dengue virus, previous studies had found. Now, in a new study, Brazilian researchers have found that these bacteria can do the same job against the Zika virus. Infected females produce Wolbachia-infected offspring, regardless of whether their mate is infected or not. But if an infected male mates with an uninfected female, their offspring die. That’s how Wolbachia spreads itself through a mosquito population.

I suspect that biological controls – with or without genetic modification, probably with – are our only hope against insect-born diseases. Getting these controls to work in the wild the way they work in the lab is very tricky, however.