Virus for controlling Malaria

Researchers at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have discovered a virus that they claim is infectious to the Anopheles gambiae mosquito responsible for spreading malaria. The virus AgDNV, is a densonucleosis virus or “densovirus”. The virus is prevalent among insects but do not affect vertebrates.

According to the study, lead author Jason Rasgon, the discovery came about serendipitously while the research team was conducting experiments to determine whether Wolbachia bacteria could be used to infect Anopheles mosquito cells.

According to them, the virus could some day be used to pass on new genetic information to Anopheles mosquitoes as a part of control strategy of malaria, which is responsible for a million deaths around the world each year