South American cities release mosquitoes to stem disease
South American cities release mosquitoes to stem disease
Tags: Dengue, Mosquitoes, WolbachiaRoberto González, SciDev.Net, 2024.
When Waldeir Barbosa da Silva explained to his family that he was going to release hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes into the open, infected with a bacterium, they were surprised. In Niterói, southeast Brazil, where da Silva lives, diseases spread by mosquitoes, such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, pose a serious public health problem. However, when mosquitoes carry the bacteria Wolbachia, naturally present in many insects, their ability to transmit these viruses decreases.