“World’s Largest Mosquito Factory in Brazil Aims to Stop Spread of Dengue Fever”

The world’s largest “mosquito factory” is being built in Brazil and will produce up to five billion bacteria-infected mosquitoes a year. Although it sounds strange at first sight, the scientists involved in this project, in fact, aimed to stop an internationally spread disease, the Dengue disease, writes nature.com.

The non-profit World Mosquito Program (WMP) has announced that it will release modified mosquitoes in many of Brazil’s urban areas over the next 10 years, with the goal of protecting up to 70 million people from dengue.

Researchers have already tested the release of this type of mosquito – which carries the bacteria Wolbachia, which stops the insect from transmitting viruses – in cities in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Vietnam. For the first time, the modified mosquitoes will be dispersed nationwide in Brazil.

Despite the positive results of previous mosquito releases, the researchers expect it will be a challenge to operate the technology on such a large scale.

Dengue is also known as “broken bone fever”. Unvaccinated people living or traveling in tropical and subtropical regions can become infected with this virus when they are bitten by mosquitoes.

Dengue fever is caused by a virus transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, a type of mosquito widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. Most people who contract this disease have mild, flu-like symptoms. However, about 2% of affected people develop a severe form of the disease, a potentially fatal complication such as Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and/or Dengue Shock Syndrome.

The main risk factors for contracting a severe form of Dengue fever are young age and the presence of chronic diseases, as well as secondary infection in the form of two successive infections with different serotypes of the virus, informs the National Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices in Romania .

Brazil has one of the highest Dengue infection rates in the world, reporting more than 2 million cases in 2022.

Also last year, Vietnam reported a massive increase in the number of Dengue fever cases. In the first half of the year, there were 60,000 people infected, 97% more than in the same period of 2021.