When he announced he was going to Brazil for the World Cup, Andy Quinn was warned by friends and a travel agent to lather on mosquito repellent to avoid potentially fatal dengue fever. Brazil will probably be the first country to approve large-scale releases of male mosquitoes with a lethal gene that causes their offspring to die before reaching adulthood, according to Hadyn Parry, chief executive officer of Oxitec Ltd. a British biotechnology company that has developed the technology. The company is awaiting final regulatory approval to start selling the insects in Brazil, meaning relief is in sight for the Olympics, Parry said. Oxitec's method is similar to some techniques that have successfully controlled other types of insects, said Duane Gubler, a professor of emerging infectious diseases at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore. The heat wave means the threat is greater at the World Cup than expected. [...] the modified mosquitoes arrive, Gubler recommends prevention.
Reported by SFGate 2 hours ago.
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