Following the increased risk of West
Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases, researchers expanded study
on ways to protect humans against them. Therefore, they have identified seven possibilities
for the next generation of mosquito repellents, some of which may be more
effective than DEET (n,n-diethyl-m-toluamide), which has served as the gold
standard of repellents for more than 50 years.
DEET was originally developed for military use in 1946 and
was approved for use on civilians in 1957. However, its odor proved to be
unsafe for some people, especially children and pregnant women. According to
the Environmental Protection Agency, there were cases of seizures among
children using it, but this information was not confirmed by further study.
According to the study published in the May 26 edition of
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the new repellents proved to
keep mosquitoes away for as long as 73 days and many working for 40 to 50 days
compared to an average of 17.5 days with DEET.
Researcher chemist Ulrich R. Bernier of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s mosquito and fly research unit in Gainesville, Fla.,
who co-authored the study, said he is optimistic about discovering a new
repellent better than DEET. “These are the best candidates I have seen in the
15 years that I’ve been testing repellents,” he said, as quoted by the Houston
Chronicle.
The new repellents also named acylpiperidinies are related
to the active ingredient in pepper. Further tests are needed to see whether
these repellents irritate skin, evaporate, dissolve in sweat, or fail in ways that
other repellents do. “If the stars are aligned, and everything goes well, we
could bring this to market in four or five years,” Bernier said.
Discovering new repellents could lead to efficient ways to
minimize the number of people who get infected with encephalitis, Lyme disease,
fever, malaria and dengue fever, all of them being spread through mosquitoes
and ticks’ bites. Currently, more than 550 million people get infected with
mosquito-borne diseases each year, according to the World Health Organization.
The new repellents are the more necessary, as global warming
will put millions more at risk, as increases in rainfall, temperature, and
humidity enable disease-spreading mosquitoes to breed to higher altitude,
according to a report released in November by the United Nations.
