Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia released about 6,000 genetically modified mosquitoes into a forest in the first experiment of its kind in Asia aimed at curbing dengue fever, officials said on Wednesday.

The field test is meant to pave the way for the use of genetically engineered Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes to mate with females and produce no offspring or ones with shorter lives, thus curtailing t

The National Institute of Virology (NIV) has alerted medical establishments in Maharashtra to keep an eye on any patients of dengue showing Congo virus-like symptoms. This move is aimed at ruling out the presence of the newly-identified virus, initial infection signs of which bear resemblance to dengue haemorrhagic fever.

The health ministry's refusal to allow the use of a highly potent mosquito control agent developed by one of its own institutes and granting permission to an imported product, has kicked up a controversy.

Even as several issues of field testing of genetically modified mosquitoes to fight malaria and dengue are being debated, Oxitec, a British company founded and part-owned by the University of Oxford, carried out the world's first open field trial last year.

Australia's scientists are trying to wipe out dengue fever by a groundbreaking scheme of field trial that could save tens of thousands of lives each year, the Australian Associated Press reported on January 3.

They have developed a bacterium that acts as a vaccine for mosquitoes, which could in turn stop the disease spreading in humans, the report said.

It was a year of respite for the City plagued with H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009.

Software will also help Health department track and manage dengue hotspots better
Come New Year, and Delhi will get a first-of-its-kind, coloured, 3D-mapping system representing the Delhi government

The Health Ministry says that fifty percent institutions and schools within the Colombo City area have mosquito larvae and possible mosquito breeding places.

The Health Ministry announced its third dengue control week from today (1) to December 7.