China has set up the world’s largest mosquito factory in Guangzhou province to tackle dengue fever by releasing one million sterilized mosquitoes every week in a bid to dilute their population.
Located in Guangzhou’s Science City area, team leader Xi Zhiyong is in charge of releasing the produced mosquitoes to the Shazi Island every week to combat the fever. This was the first trial test in the field and has been proved to reduce the mosquito population by 90%.
About the Technique
Releasing sterilized mosquito to the wild is one of several innovative attempts to tackle the breakbone disease (so named because the sickness causes an agonizing pain) by diluting the mosquito population with insects that don’t carry the disease.
Reasons behind the decision
- Last year China had the worst outbreak in two decades with 47,000 cases.
- Catch one strain, the person will be immune to the virus in future, but if bitten by a mosquito carrying another one of the strains, the chances to develop dengue, becomes high.
- No vaccine or treatment is available and recently it has caused about 22,000 deaths a year worldwide, mostly among children.
