Insecticides, while effective in the short-term, may result in higher resistance in mosquitoes, leading to worse epidemics in the future, according to a study released Tuesday.
The current approach has proven to be inadequate to wipe out the mosquitoes that cause dengue infections, reports the AFP.
Using insecticides, which target only mosquito larvae, and not adults, could result in higher resistance in the insects.
The study found it could lead to less disease immunity among humans, especially in urban settings.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne infection that causes severe, flu-like symptoms in some 50 million people every year, mainly in developing countries.
The disease is rarely fatal but frequently debilitating, and global incidence of the disease has risen dramatically in recent decades.
The increase has been linked to both rapid urbanization and the impact of global warming. Some 2.5 billion people are at risk, reports the AFP.
No treatment, cure or vaccine currently exists -- the only way to control the disease is to kill the mosquitoes that carry it, especially one species: Aedes aegypti.
But experts are still deliberating over which insecticides work best, how frequently they should be applied and whether it is more effective to target mosquitoes in their larval or adult stage.
The study's research team was led by Paula Luz of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro.
They used mathematics and computer models to simulate the impact over five years of dozens of different strategies for reducing the vectors in which the blood-seeking insects breed and live, the AFP reports.
Using World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to indicate "cost-effectiveness," the cost of different approaches was also taken into account.
Namely, the trade off between results and the price tag.
According to the study, the method prevailing in most countries -- attempting to destroy breeding areas -- is misguided, reports the AFP.
"Year-round larval control can be counterproductive, exacerbating epidemics in later years because of evolution of insecticide resistance and lost of herd immunity," the researchers said.
"Herd immunity" is the term scientists use to describe immunity that occurs when enough of the population is inoculated from having had the disease to prevent it from spreading easily.
The problem of mosquitoes adapting to insecticide -- as happened with DDT in the 1950s and 1960s -- was common to all the strategies, according to the AFP.
However, not all were as effective in reducing disease outbreak over a longer period.
The results of the study are published in The Lancet.
