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From the excessive balcony of a Singapore public housing block, an atmosphere official steadies his mosquito launcher, the newest contraption authorities have devised to fight a record outbreak of the tropical illness dengue.
With the clicking of a button and a whirr of a fan, a hatch opens and 150 lab-reared male mosquitoes are despatched flying, off looking for a feminine companion with whom they will mate however not reproduce.
The dengue virus, which in uncommon instances will be deadly, is carried and unfold to people by contaminated mosquitoes.
But Singapore’s specifically bred mosquitoes carry a micro organism that stops eggs from hatching, and “compete with the wild type,” resulting in “a gradual reduction of the mosquito population,” mentioned Ng Lee Ching, the official heading the Wolbachia undertaking, named after the micro organism.
Some areas with excessive mosquito populations have seen as much as 90% declines utilizing this system, she added.
Singapore – a tiny Southeast Asian island nation of 5.7 million folks – has recorded more than 26,000 dengue instances this 12 months, surpassing the earlier annual record of round 22,000 in 2013 with 4 months nonetheless remaining.
Twenty folks have died of the illness this 12 months, which might trigger excessive fever that results in inner bleeding and shock. By comparability, solely 27 folks have died of the coronavirus within the city-state out of more than 56,000 infections.
A brand new pressure of the illness, mixed with unseasonably moist climate and coronavirus lockdowns that left building websites and different mosquito breeding grounds undisturbed, are all seen as components behind the dengue outbreak.
That has put the onus on conventional deterrents like fogging, fining folks for flouting anti-mosquito rules like leaving plant pots stuffed with stagnant water, and deploying novel methods such because the Wolbachia undertaking.
In authorities laboratories, scientists breed the bacteria-carrying mosquitoes in rows of pallets – separating the male pupae for launch within the worst-hit dengue areas.
Wolbachia mosquitoes can’t transmit ailments resembling dengue, and solely feminine mosquitoes chunk people.
When male Wolbachia mosquitoes mate with females that don’t carry the micro organism, not one of the resultant eggs will hatch.
The technique has been profitable in Australia however some specialists say it may need its limits in dense city areas resembling Singapore.
“You’ve got to flood the island with these mosquitoes, and people get annoyed,” mentioned Paul Tambyah, senior guide at Singapore’s National University Hospital.
“They’re not going to grab the mosquito and examine and see whether it’s a male or female. They’re going to swipe them away, and that kind of defeats the purpose,” he mentioned.
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