|
The
South American country has this year recorded over 41,000 cases
of the disease transmitted by mosquitoes, far above the
equivalent level in previous years of major outbreaks in 2020
and 2016, government data showed.
"This mosquito, due to the rise in temperature in our country
and the world... is able to spread more. Their population keeps
on moving further south," said National Atomic Energy Commission
(CNEA) biologist Marianela Garcia Alba.
To fight back, CNEA biologists have been experimenting with
atomic sterilization since 2016. They are sterilizing 10,000
males per week and aim to increase that to 500,000. They expect
to release the first batch of sterilized males in November.
"They are sterilized through ionizing energy and those sterile
males are freed into the fields and when they meet with a wild
female, their offspring are not viable," said Garcia Alba. "This
way, by successive release of such males we'll be able to reduce
the population of the vector mosquito."
Dengue is transmitted through the bites of aedes aegypti
mosquitoes. Its symptoms include fever, eye, head, muscle and
joint pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue.
Similar techniques to sterilize pests using the same radiation
found in X-rays have been utilised for decades, helping global
efforts to control diseases such as chikungunya, dengue and Zika.
(Reporting by Horacio Soria and Juan Bustamente; Writing by Adam
Jourdan, editing by Ed Osmond)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
