Shortened Mosquito Lifespan to Prevent Spread of Disease

This is the time of year when we start thinking about mosquitoes and how to avoid getting eaten alive every time we venture out into the great outdoors. I live in the country, surrounded by an absolutely beautiful forested estate, but I can't even open a window without my home becoming infested with the pests. While getting bitten is an irritation, it can cause some very serious diseases, like West Nile Virus infection, in Canada, or Malaria, in warmer climates. Dengue hemorraghic fever is another disease carried by mosquitoes, specifically Aedes aegypti, of tropical and subtropical regions. Infection by the dengue virus causes flu-like symptoms. Hemorraghic fever is a possible complication of dengue infection, and is often lethal.

Scientists from Australia and China have published a paper proposing a way to prevent the spread of the dengue virus by shortening the lifespan of the mosquitoes. This is done by infecting them with the bacterium, Wolbachia, an inherited bacterial symbiont. In the laboratory, infection with this bacterium halved the lifespan of the insects, reducing spread of the virus, which requires a long incubation time for development within its host.

Dengue is a member of the Flaviviridae family of viruses, and is a "Hepatitis C-like virus", with a single-stranded RNA genome. "Flavi" comes from the latin word for "yellow" and the family is so named because its most well-known member is the Yellow-Fever Virus. These viruses are transmitted primarily by arthropods, mainly mosquitoes and ticks.