Scientist Targets Dengue Fever

SOUTH BEND — The traditional way to combat something like dengue fever is to go after the mosquitoes that spread the disease to people.

Drain their swampy habitats. Spray them with insecticides. Douse ourselves with repellents.

The skeeters always get away, especially in poor countries where resources for mosquito-control are scarce.

Now a tropical disease scientist at the University of Notre Dame is taking a fresh — and potentially controversial — approach to the problem.

He's proposed changing the genetics of the carrier mosquitoes themselves to make them immune to the virus that causes dengue fever.

If the mosquitoes can't become infected, then people can't either.

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