Panama will use genetically modified mosquitoes to fight dengue

PANAMA CITY – Panama will try to control a dengue outbreak that has claimed six lives this year by releasing transgenic mosquitoes. Officials believe the mosquitoes can render infertile female transmitters of the disease, officials said.

Health Ministry Director Carlos Gálvez told AFP the technique has “shown promise” in Brazil and the Cayman Islands.

In Panama, it is being run by the Instituto Gorgas tropical research institute.

“The GM male mosquitoes have contact with the females that transmit dengue; then the eggs the (non-GM) females lay no longer produce (dengue-)transmitting mosquitoes,” he explained.

Gálvez said the GM mosquitoes are not a danger to humans because they do not feed on blood, but rather on fruit.

GM mosquitoes live for just a week, while normal ones live for a month.

The ministry plans to release the GM bugs in two weeks, numbering in the hundreds for each estimated dengue-transmitting female.