For nearly ten years, the World Mosquito Program (WMP) has been replacing local populations of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with biologically modified insects to prevent the spread of a virus that has killed over 4,500 in Latin America and the Caribbean so far this year.

Rather than deploying harmful insecticides, "this technology is designed so that a living bacterium, within a mosquito—an organism that is also alive—can be released to continue preserving life," said biologist Nelson Grisales.

The project, supported by American multi-billionaire Bill Gates, has achieved promising results: dengue cases have fallen 95 percent in the northwestern Antioquia department, health authorities say.

Gates is a popular target of conspiracy theories and the mosquito project is no different, with viral rumors "that the mosquitoes we release are equipped with Bill Gates' mind control chips, that they can make people homosexual or that they transmit stronger diseases," said Grisales.

Rather, scientists are producing mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia, a bacteria common in other insect and mosquito species, hoping the Aedes aegypti will spread it in the wild.

Wolbachia works in two ways: it boosts a mosquito's immune system, making it less likely to contract dengue.