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4 January 2013 Last updated at 19:45 ET By Martin Vennard BBC World Service

After a summer of record-high temperatures in the US in 2012, health officials are still dealing with the repercussions of mosquito-borne diseases. Could genetically-modified insects halt their spread?

The year 2012 ended with an ignoble distinction. According to the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), it was the worst year for West Nile virus since 2003.

The CDCP says record-high temperatures could well have helped the mosquitoes that transmit the disease to thrive.

At the same time, new outbreaks of dengue fever on the Mexican side of the Texas-Mexico border had US officials worried that the virus would slowly spread north.

And experts fear that in 2013, it's only going to get worse.

A British company, Oxitec, has come up with a plan to control the bugs and combat dengue fever. Its scientists have designed genetically modified mosquitoes that have one mission - to kill off the rest of their species.

But is the plan too radical for its own good?

The World Health Organization says dengue ranks as the most important mosquito-borne viral disease in the world. In the last 50 years, incidence has increased 30-fold.

It is now endemic in Puerto Rico and in many popular tourist destinations in Latin America and South East Asia.

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Can genetically modified mosquitoes prevent disease in the US?