WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Doctor Says His Latest Invention Could Help Save Lives

Doctor Says His Latest Invention Could Help Save Lives

Mosquitoes might be small, but they pack a powerful punch. During the summer, mosquitoes in several areas in Chatham County were found to carry the West Nile virus. They can also carry several other potentially deadly diseases.

Now one doctor says he has a way to prevent the spread of those diseases.

Georgia Southern professor Dr. Tom Kollars was busy setting up mosquito traps in Bulloch County today, looking for a way to stop the spread of disease. Kollars has tested hundreds of mosquitoes and says that close to 60 percent of those that ingest the malaria parasite could get infected with the potentially deadly disease.

But after working in southeast Asia, he saw firsthand what this deadly disease could do.

"We saw patients and children with malaria and dengue fever," said Dr. Kollars.  "About 40 percent of children die and there's no treatment or vaccine, there's no drug for dengue, while there's drug resistance to malaria."

So he came up with what he calls a solution. It's called Provector. It looks like a flower, only it uses a chemical to attract the mosquito.

"Female mosquitoes have to get food sources, blood meals and nectar and fruit juices used for energy to fly. They'll feed on nectar and sugar sources ten times more than blood because they need it for energy," said Dr. Kollars.

Once mosquitoes take in the antiviral formula in the traps, it works with their system to block the development of the disease, killing it but not the mosquito.

Dr Kollars says not only will his invention help save lives, but it will be cost effective.

"Well for example, the average family in Kenya spends $110 treating their family with malaria. We're trying to make this device very cost effective at five to ten dollars, where someone can put this in their home," said Dr. Kollars.

Through his research, Dr. Kollar's treatment has knocked down the number of infected mosquitoes to two percent.

"We have a chance here to be involved with preventing hundreds of millions from dying and getting sick and it's a blessing," said Dr. Kollars.

Dr. Kollars says, right now they are developing the formula for malaria and dengue fever and then working on others for West Nile, Japanese encephalitis and yellow fever. This is an environmentally safe product and should available in about a year.

This project is a collaborative effort involving Mev Labs Incorporated, MIT Incorporated and Georgia Southern University.

Reported by:  David Hall, dhall@wtoc.com