A worker fumigates against dengue mosquitoes at a slum in Asuncion (15/11).REUTERS/Jorge Adorno
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Brazil will unleash a Genetically Modified (GM) mosquito swarms to fight dengue, an acute tropical disease which affects more than 50 million people every year, the New Scientist reported.
Biotech company Oxitec, UK, will open a factory in Campinas, Brazil, to raise millions of modified mosquitoes. They will mate with wild females, whose offspring will die before reaching adulthood.
RIA Novosti reported that Oxitec hopes this should cut the number of dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
There is no vaccine or preventive drug, so all people can do is spray insecticide on a large scale in a bid to kill dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
Oxitec plans to release millions of modified mosquitoes in the Bahia town of Jacobina. The Brazilian state of Bahia is one of the most affected areas in the country.
Editor: Heppy Ratna
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