- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- September second-warmest on record: EU climate monitor
- Pastor wanted by US for sex trafficking to run for Philippine senate
- Mozambican writer Mia Couto dreams future leaders set an 'example'
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case cleared in separate sex crimes trial
- Israel expands offensive against Hezbollah in south Lebanon
- Bangladesh's Yunus says no elections before reforms
- England strike twice as Pakistan reach 397-6 at lunch in first Test
- Taiwan's Foxconn says building world's largest 'superchip' plant
- Kenya's deputy president faces impeachment vote
- N. Korean soldiers 'highly likely' killed in Ukraine: Seoul
- 'Appeals Centre' to referee EU social media disputes
- US Supreme Court to hear 'ghost guns' regulation case
- 'Small' oil leaks detected in Samoa after NZ navy shipwreck
- Nobel literature jury may go for non-Western writer
- At Istanbul church, blessed spring offers hope to Christians and Muslims
- From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace
- Myanmar to send rep to regional summit for first time in three years
- Prabowo set to lead bolder Indonesia on world stage
- Tampa zoo rushes Chompers the porcupine and others to safety as Milton nears
- New Japan PM to hold talks on ASEAN sidelines
- Record number of climbers chase 14-peak dream in Tibet
- Former South Korea clinic for US 'comfort women' to be demolished
- Chiefs battle past Saints to stay unbeaten
- Deal on climate aid hangs in balance at UN COP29 summit
- Royals hit back against Yankees, Tigers maul Guardians
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case faces verdict in sex crimes trial
- Top economic official 'confident' China will hit 2024 growth target
- COP29 fight looms over climate funds for developing world
- Shanghai stocks soar to extend stimulus rally amid Asia-wide drop
- Australia moves to expand Antarctic marine park
- Tragedy of Madrid street sweeper highlights how heatwaves kill
- Survivors wait for aid as Trump's lies help cloud Helene response
- Fleeing Israeli bombs, Lebanon's displaced met with suspicion
- Jila Mossaed, from refugee poet to Swedish Academy
- Will Tesla's robotaxi reveal live up to hype?
- Drugs, people smuggling at heart of Mexico's raging violence
- 'Invisibility' and quantum computing tipped for physics Nobel
- Musk says he is 'all in' on Trump in US election
- Category 5 Hurricane Milton roars towards storm-battered Florida
- Carpenter bomb stuns Guardians as Tigers level series
- Harris, Trump and Biden mark Oct. 7 attacks as US election looms
- US judge orders Google to open Android to rival app stores
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights 'sacred' multi-front war
- Nobel scientist uncovered tiny genetic switches with big potential
- Grammy-winning Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney, dies at 91
- UN biodiversity summit in Colombia aims to turn words into action
- Georgia Supreme Court reinstates six-week abortion ban
RYCEF | -0.15% | 6.87 | $ | |
SCS | -0.15% | 12.95 | $ | |
RELX | -0.54% | 46.04 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.53% | 24.57 | $ | |
RIO | -0.11% | 69.62 | $ | |
GSK | -0.49% | 38.63 | $ | |
BTI | -0.26% | 35.2 | $ | |
RBGPF | 100% | 60.52 | $ | |
AZN | -0.78% | 76.87 | $ | |
NGG | -1.56% | 65.48 | $ | |
VOD | 0.31% | 9.69 | $ | |
BCE | -0.54% | 33.53 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.09% | 24.79 | $ | |
BP | 0.78% | 33.14 | $ | |
JRI | -0.76% | 13.18 | $ | |
BCC | 1.68% | 141.27 | $ |
Colombian mosquito factory fights dengue and disinformation
The jars of larvae in stagnant water and thick clouds of mosquitoes at a Colombian lab may seem like the stuff of nightmares. They are in fact crucial to a project to fight the spread of dengue fever.
For nearly ten years, the World Mosquito Program (WMP) has been replacing local populations of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with biologically modified insects to prevent the spread of a virus that has killed over 4,500 in Latin America and the Caribbean so far this year.
Rather than deploying harmful insecticides, "this technology is designed so that a living bacterium, within a mosquito -- an organism that is also alive -- can be released to continue preserving life," said biologist Nelson Grisales.
The project, supported by American multi-billionaire Bill Gates, has achieved promising results: dengue cases have fallen 95 percent in the northwestern Antioquia department, health authorities say.
Gates is a popular target of conspiracy theories and the mosquito project is no different, with viral rumors "that the mosquitoes we release are equipped with Bill Gates' mind control chips, that they can make people homosexual or that they transmit stronger diseases," said Grisales.
Rather, scientists are producing mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia, a bacteria common in other insect and mosquito species, hoping the Aedes aegypti will spread it in the wild.
Wolbachia works in two ways: it boosts a mosquito's immune system, making it less likely to contract dengue.
But if the mosquito does get infected, Wolbachia makes it harder for the virus to grow inside the insect and be transmitted to humans.
"This is not a genetic modification," said another biologist at the WMP, Beatriz Giraldo.
"The bacteria enters the mosquito cell and makes a biological modification."
- As planet warms, dengue spreads -
People will still suffer an annoying mosquito bite, but will be spared dengue fever, which causes joint and bone pain, earning it the nickname "breakbone fever."
The virus can provoke hemorrhagic fever in severe cases, and even death.
Dengue cases have soared in recent decades, and Latin America experienced its worst outbreak on record in the first months of 2024, attributed to a muggy summer intensified by the El Nino weather phenomenon.
The European Union's health agency has warned of rising cases in Europe as climate change creates warmer conditions perfect for mosquito breeding.
In Colombia, the modified mosquitoes are brought in jars to areas hard-hit by the virus and released into the wild to breed with, and slowly replace, local populations.
Wolbachia's dengue-fighting abilities were discovered by scientists in Australia, where the first trials were held in 2011.
In Colombia, the first infected mosquitoes were introduced in the city of Medellin in 2015, and the project was later taken to the city of Cali.
The same experiment has been conducted in Indonesia and Brazil and will soon be implemented in El Salvador.
The program "has accelerated at the same time as the dengue problem has grown," said Grisales.
For now, the project operates as a private initiative authorized by local authorities, but Grisales hopes it will soon become "public policy."
In Cali, where Wolbachia mosquitoes have been flying since 2019, "many people did not like the initial impact of the mosquito releases," said resident Albency Orozco.
"But as the monitoring and proper explanations were carried out, people accepted it."
C.Amaral--PC