A mosquito created to help fight a deadly disease
PANAMA CITY — Scientists have created a new type of mosquito that might help in the fight against a terrible disease called dengue fever.

They have been called suicide mosquitoes, dead-end bugs and even Frankenskeeters. Panama is one of the countries that may use them to try to get rid of mosquitoes that carry the deadly disease, while other countries are also doing tests.

Dengue is on the rise worldwide. The mosquito that carries the dengue virus has spread to 100 countries. There are 2.5 billion people it could reach. Some 50 million to 100 million people come down with dengue each year, health officials say. About 25,000 die.

People with the disease get dehydrated very fast. "In a matter of hours, the cases can grow more complicated,” said Dr. Carlos Galvez. He is a health official in Panama.

Mosquito Bites Spread Disease

This has been a particularly bad year for dengue in the Western Hemisphere. Officials say there have been 1.4 million cases.

Panama has one of the most developed public-health systems in Latin America. Yet even Panama struggles with a type of mosquito known as Aedes aegypti. The mosquito originally came from North Africa. It is the main carrier of the dengue virus.

Teams patrol the streets spraying chemicals in a constant battle against the mosquito. Public service ads remind Panamanians to drain standing water in buckets, flowerpots and old tires. Mosquitoes breed in that water.

Before long, public health officials may have a new tool. A British company called Oxitec Ltd. has a mosquito called OX513A. The mosquito's genes have been changed. Genes are the biological coding that give animals their characteristics.

Oxitec mosquitoes are all male. They contain a “lethality gene.” When the mosquitoes are released into the wild, they mate with females but the offspring don’t survive. That’s why they’re called dead-end bugs.

Some Oppose The Altered Mosquito
If Panamanian officials say it is okay, sometime early next year technicians will release tens of thousands of the mosquitoes in Arraijan. The community is across the canal from Panama City.

“We plan to do about 50,000 per week,” said Dr. Nestor Sosa. He runs a research group. There need to be at least 10 of the special mosquitoes for every normal mosquito, he said.

If all goes according to plan, the mosquito population will drop. So would the chance of catching dengue, Galvez said.

Some people oppose using the OX513A mosquitoes. People think they may not work. Others don't think enough studies have been done on how they will affect other animals and plants.

It is possible dengue could get worse, said Dr. Helen Wallace. She runs a British group that monitors genetic science. Wallace said another mosquito could develop and carry the virus.

The new mosquito is being developed too quickly to figure out what might happen, one expert said.

Better Than Insecticides, Oxitec Says

Olmedo Carrasquilla, an environmental lawyer in Panama, said his nation should better educate the public on mosquito control. Basic methods to control mosquitoes work, he said. Why spend millions on something that might not work?

Sosa, the health official, dismissed some of the criticism, especially about how the mosquitoes might affect other plants and animals.

“The mosquito dies in a few days,” Sosa said. It is not likely to affect the environment. “It’s not that we are doing something that is environmentally unfriendly.”

Hadyn Parry is in charge of Oxitec. He said that his company thought its mosquito was safer than using insecticides, which he said “affect all insects in a given area.” Insecticides can also get into other animals and the environment, and stick around.

Dead-end mosquitoes only affect one species, he said. “It’s a highly targeted sniper’s rifle.”

Passed Test With Flying Colors
Mosquitoes live for about three weeks and they generally spend that time in an area 200 yards from where they were born. The Oxitec mosquitoes, he said, can always be detected.

“You can actually look at any of our insects under a fluorescent light, and you’ll see a red color. This is so important when it comes to monitoring. We can tell how far our insects fly and where they are going,” Parry said.

Oxitec mosquitoes have been tested in the Cayman Islands, Malaysia and Brazil, Parry said. He expects tests in India and in the Florida Keys, if state and U.S. officials give the okay.

In tests earlier this year in a village in Brazil, Oxitec said it got rid of 96 percent of the dengue mosquito.