Mosquitoes Shoot Blanks in Scientist’s Air War on Dengue
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U.K. biotechnology start-up Oxitec Ltd. wants to start U.S. tests of a new weapon in the war on dengue fever: genetically modifying mosquitoes that carry the disease so that their progeny self-destruct.
Dengue, endemic in more than 100 countries, has begun to appear in the continental U.S., with local cases occurring in Key West, Florida, in 2009 and 2010 and in Miami last year. The virus afflicts as many as 100 million people a year globally, about 20 times the number of serious influenza cases, according to the World Health Organization. In its worst form, dengue can cause severe flu-like symptoms and fatal bleeding.