The World Health Organization has now declared the outbreak to be a global public health emergency
Sarah Knapton | London Telegraph
Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes should be released into countries affected by Zika to bring the current crisis under control, scientists have claimed.
Thousands of babies have been born with shrunken heads after their mothers were bitten by zika infected mosquitoes in Latin America.
The World Health Organization has now declared the outbreak to be a global public health emergency and asked for help from countries around the world in defeating the virus.
But scientists at British biotech company Oxitec, a spin off from Oxford University, believe the virus could be brought under control in just a few months if millions of genetically modified mosquitoes were released into the wild.
Trials in Brazil have already shown that the GM insects can causes populations of the dangerous aedes aegypti mosquito to drop by 90 per cent, and causes of dengue to fall by 99 per cent.
In the next few weeks, the Brazilian Health Ministry is expected to give the green light for Oxitec to begin supplying the insects across the country. The WHO is also broadly in favor of the new technology.