Are you covered in mosquito bites? Or have you just flattened a mosquito? Take a photo and send it to the Mosquito Alert App. Erasmus MC in Rotterdam is leading a study to identify the breeding grounds of disease-causing mosquitoes. The photos come in handy for that. European researchers hope in this way to better map the spread of mosquitoes and to predict which areas in the Netherlands and abroad are risk areas.
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The more photos, the better, is the researchers’ credo. The app has already been successfully launched in Spain, where citizens submitted more than 18,000 photos, enabling the researchers to accurately map the distribution of the Asian tiger mosquito.
The ‘normal mosquito’ in the Netherlands can also transmit tropical diseases. Last year, for example, several people outside the region contracted the West Nile virus after a mosquito bite. The risk of other tropical infectious diseases due to climate change is also increasing in the Netherlands. “It is only a matter of time before diseases such as malaria come here. In about ten years it may be that sleeping under a mosquito net has become very normal,” says Maarten Hoek of Erasmus MC. He is program manager for the research in the Netherlands.
‘Don’t hit too hard’
According to him, we should not kill the mosquitoes too hard, because then they are no longer recognizable. The photos are viewed by a first expert. If it turns out to be a special mosquito, a second person checks whether this is correct. Photos of mosquito bites can also be useful, but they do not show which mosquito has bitten.
The app is now active in 17 countries. The success in Spain is now also spreading to countries such as Hungary and Italy. “People also seem to enjoy participating in this research,” Hoek says.
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