The World Mosquito Program is planning to build the largest mass rearing facility globally in Curitiba, a move that is expected to cover a majority of urban Brazil in the next decade.
In addition to this, other methods are being explored for mosquito control. For instance, UK-based Oxitec has been distributing genetically modified ‘friendly’ mosquito eggs to Indaiatuba, Brazil, since 2018. Notably, the hatched insects, which are all males, do not bite. What’s more, their female offspring do not survive, leading to a reduction in mosquito populations.
Furthermore, Forrest Brasil Tecnologia, another firm, has been releasing sterilized male mosquitoes in some areas of Ortigueira. After they mate with wild females, these males generate eggs that do not hatch. Between November 2020 and July 2022, the company observed a staggering 98.7% decrease in the Ades aegypti mosquito population in Ortigueira.
Brazil is also making strides towards granting its residents with increased immunity. They are doing this by administering a new Japanese shot to the most vulnerable and developing their own dengue vaccine.
While these solutions are not immediate, they do offer some optimism that humanity can devise strategies to combat diseases as climate change elevates dengue and other infections to unprecedented levels in unique regions. Gabriela Paz-Bailey, a dengue specialist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has warned that dengue fever cases are escalating at a concerning pace. The disease is evolving into a public health crisis and cropping up in regions it has not previously affected.
In prior reports, coverage was given to the World Mosquito Program, including a 2016 piece that spotlighted preliminary enthusiasm for the initiative and support from Bill Gates. In the same year, a report on Oxitec’s pioneering work in Brazil using genetically modified mosquitoes was published. Finally, another story featured Verily, Google’s sister company that developed a robot to produce Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes and started releasing them in California in 2017. The project has since been renamed as Debug.
