SCIENTISTS IN America have successfully developed a malaria-resistant mosquito, the BBC reports. The genetically-engineered insect is immune to the strain of malaria contracted by humans.

Researchers at the University of Arizona engineered the mosquitoes, and the head of the project, Prof Michael Riehle, told the Arizona Republic that his plan is to eventually replace all wild mosquitoes with these ones.

The development could be a significant breakthrough in the prevention of the disease, which affects an estimated 250 million people every year. One million people, mostly children, are killed by the illness. Although preventative medicines are highly effective in combating the spread of malaria, some resistant strains of the illness have developed.

Although she had followed a course of Malaria preventatives, Cheryl Cole contracted the illness while on holiday in Tanzania. The X Factor star has been released from hospital and is now recovering at home, but has cancelled some of her workload to recuperate from the illness: