A team of British researchers have recently proposed a plan to fight two tropical viruses using the release of genetically modified mosquitoes. This spring, Key West, Florida, could become the first U.S. residential area to host insects with altered DNA.

The federal Food And Drug Administration is currently deciding whether or not to allow the experiment proposed by Oxitech, a biotech company launched by researchers at Oxford University. “This is essentially using a mosquito as a drug to cure disease,” said Michael Doyle, executive director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District.

The two viruses targeted by the experiment would be dengue – also known as “break bone fever” – and chikungunya, which causes extremely painful body contortions. No known vaccines or cures exist for either illness, which are tropical viruses spread by a particular type of mosquito known as Aedes aegypti. While U.S. cases remain rare, dengue affects 50 million people annually around the globe, with fatalities occurring in about 2.5 percent of severe cases. Chikungunya has had a devastating effect across the Caribbean, with a million people in the region infected last year.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes have been travelling further from the equator each year due to climate change and increased global travel. While the males feed on nectar, the females bite and can spread the harmful viruses to humans. Oxitech has patented a process of breeding Aedes aegypti with different proteins and genes to create a concoction that is fatal to the mosquito larvae, killing young bugs before they are able to bite or fly. The modified genes are taken from coral and cabbage, and the proteins are adapted from the herpes simplex virus and E. coli bacteria.

Aedes aegypti have become immune over time to four of the six pesticides commonly used to kill them. The researchers plan on releasing only genetically modified males, hoping that they will breed with wild females and reduce the mosquito population when their offspring die.

However, much contention exists in the community around the issue. 140,000 people have already signed a Change.org petition against the project. The potential release site is Key Haven, a 444-home neighborhood on a northern peninsula of the Florida Keys. Resident Marilyn Smith expressed her frustration to the Tampa Bay Times. “Why are we being used as the experiment, the guinea pigs, just to see what happens?” she said.

No chikungunya cases have been reported in the Keys, and it has been years since the region has experienced a dengue outbreak. The FDA assures community members that it will take all factors into account when making its decision on whether to allow the genetically modified mosquitoes to be released.