Release mosquitoes! How 5 Billion Bugs Help Brazil Fight Dengue Fever

It may sound like the premise of a horror movie or the plague of the Bible, but the Global Mosquito Program plans to release 5 billion mosquitoes in Brazil. And I hope they can help save lives.

Billions of bugs are released with a bacterium called Wolbachia to slow the spread of dengue in the country.

“[Once] It doesn’t look like a horror movie anymore when you see disease transmission declining,” said Scott O’Neill, head of the Global Mosquito Program. the current Host Matt Galloway.

A mosquito factory is being built for the project. It will open in 2024 and release 5 billion mosquitoes across Brazil each year. According to the scientific journal Nature.

The World Health Organization 2.8 million dengue cases reported in the Americas 2022. Of these countries, Brazil reported her second highest incidence with 1,104.5 cases per 100,000 people.

Dengue fever is a viral infection that is most often transmitted to humans through infected mosquitoes. Mild cases can cause high fever and flu-like symptoms. In more severe cases, it can cause bleeding, a rapid drop in blood pressure, and death.

“The dengue situation in Brazil is getting worse every year,” said Luciano Moreira, a scientist at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a public health research institute in Rio de Janeiro.

“More than 1,000 people died [in 2022] You can get dengue fever because mosquitoes spread around you. it goes everywhere. ”

Usage

According to O’Neill, Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes actually prevent them from transmitting viruses such as dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and yellow fever.

He was able to accomplish the tedious task of injecting bacteria into tiny mosquito eggs.

“We actually raise these mosquitoes that contain the bacterium, Wolbachia, and release them into communities where the bacterium Wolbachia spreads to wild mosquito populations,” says O’Neill, a microbiologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

“Then we see a dramatic drop in dengue cases.”

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His organization has a similar project in Australia, which has eradicated the local dengue infection, he said. Trials in Indonesia have yielded similar results.

“The trial measured an approximately 77% reduction in confirmed dengue cases and an 86% reduction in dengue hospitalizations,” O’Neill said.

“This is the big effect we are seeing.”

‘People are in despair’

Brazil will be the World Mosquito Program’s most ambitious project to date. The goal is to release 5 billion mosquitoes annually nationwide. This is a level of production the organization has never done before.

He says they can typically produce about 10 million mosquitoes a week.

“We need more automation. To grow at that scale, we need more precise conditions. Yes, this is a fully automated facility and it will be built in Brazil,” O’Neill said. said.

But rollout is also a challenge. In deployment he has two methods. They put the eggs in a small bucket of water and let the mosquitoes grow themselves, or they release adult mosquito tubes and every 100 meters across the city grid he releases 150 bugs can also do.

But most people don’t notice the difference, he says.

“In many cases, when we release mosquitoes, the numbers we release do not notice any change from the normal biting activity that we experience on a daily basis, for the most part.

The group has to release mosquitoes into poor communities and places that are not always safe because they are controlled by gangs. But overall, O’Neill is confident it will make a difference in the country.

“This approach seems to have had a huge impact,” says O’Neill.

“It’s a daunting prospect for people to comprehend. But when people live in endemic areas and fear the disease and its impact on families, they are desperate and hungry for new approaches.”