Brazil builds factory to produce 500 million special mosquitoes a year

Since the beginning of this year, the number of dengue fever cases in Brazil has exceeded 3.9 million, with 1,888 deaths. The death toll has reached a record high. In order to prevent the spread of dengue fever, the Brazilian Ministry of Health established a "mosquito factory" in Rio de Janeiro to breed mosquitoes carrying a special bacteria.

(Source: CCTV News)

These mosquitoes carry a type of bacteria called Wolbachia, which is present in 60% of insects in nature. Studies have found that Wolbachia can prevent viruses such as dengue fever from replicating in mosquitoes.

Dengue fever is an acute infectious disease caused by the dengue virus. It is mainly transmitted through mosquito vectors and is mostly prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. Typical symptoms include persistent fever, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, etc., and can be fatal in severe cases.

According to reports, dengue fever patients will not be infected if bitten by mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia. This bacterium can spread rapidly among mosquito populations through genetics, thereby reducing the risk of mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue fever, Zika, and Chikungunya. Number of carriers.

Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes are mass-produced in "mosquito factories", where approximately 500 million mosquitoes are produced every year. They are then released into the natural environment and gradually replace the virus-carrying mosquitoes through natural reproduction. .

(Source: CCTV News)

Gabrielle Silvestre, the leader of the "Mosquito Factory" project, said Wolbachia does not infect humans and mammals, is low-cost and can replace regional mosquito populations in a short period of time.

But Silvestre also emphasized that the Wolbachia mosquito project is used to complement other existing mosquito control measures. It is not a treatment method, but a preventive measure, so it cannot solve the ongoing outbreak. epidemic. But if a city is at the peak of an epidemic, it's the perfect time to release Wolbachia mosquitoes, and the effects can be seen in two years.

As early as 2015, Brazil took the lead in releasing Wolbachia mosquitoes in Niterói, Rio state. Data show that dengue cases in the city dropped by 70% in 2021, Chikungunya and Zika cases dropped by 60% and 40% respectively, and dengue cases dropped by 90% in 2023.

This time, a new wave of dengue fever broke out in Brazil. There were more than 3.9 million dengue fever cases in the country, but only 1,314 people were infected in Niterói.

Currently, Brazil plans to expand the scope of Wolbachia mosquitoes, with the goal of covering 1/3 of the Brazilian population within 10 years.

In addition to releasing Wolbachia mosquitoes, the city of Rio de Janeiro also releases guppies into urban waters to eat mosquito larvae in the water. Guppies are small in size and have the ability to adapt to high temperatures and water pollution. Combined with spraying mosquito killers, a combination of methods can be used to deal with the dengue fever epidemic.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the epidemic alert issued by the Pan American Health Organization in February showed that in the first five weeks of this year, a total of 673,267 dengue fever cases (including suspected cases) were reported in the Americas, a year-on-year increase of 157%, which is similar to the average level of the past five years. A year-on-year increase of 225%, with 102 deaths.